ORANGE AND RIVERSIDE PROSECUTORS TO
JOINTLY OPPOSE PAROLE OF MAN WHO BRUTALLY
RAPED AND MURDERED TWO WOMEN IN 1975

SANTA ANA / RIVERSIDE - SANTA ANA / RIVERSIDE - Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas and Riverside District Attorney Rod Pacheco are joining together to oppose the parole of a man who brutally raped and murdered two women in Orange and Riverside Counties in 1975. Gregory Coates, 50, formerly of Rubidoux, is currently being held at the Sierra Conservation Center in Jamestown, California near Modesto. Coates is a life prisoner with a parole consideration date of June 20, 2007.

Orange County Deputy District Attorney Matt Lockhart and Riverside Deputy District Attorney John Ruiz will appear. Victim Advocate Marilyn Baldwin will accompany Ruiz.

ORANGE COUNTY MURDER OF STEPMOTHER BETTY COATES

On May 4, 1975, Coates, then 18, bludgeoned, raped, and suffocated his stepmother, Betty Coates, 48. After murdering her, Coates wrapped his stepmother in towels, doused her with gasoline and set her on fire. Her burnt body was discovered in her home in San Juan Capistrano.

RIVERSIDE MURDER OF JAN MARIE STEPHENS

Coates' Orange County arrest led law enforcement to solve Coates' murder of his friend's mother. The Stephens family had treated Coates, then 17, as a member of the family. Coates even stated that he felt closer to Jan Stephens, 37, since she treated him better than his own mother. On January 22, 1975, Coates burglarized the Stephens' home looking for firearms to steal and sell. When Jan Stephens discovered him, Coates knocked her down with a dumbbell, raped her and bit her stomach as she screamed for help. He then shot her in the head twice with a firearm he had stolen from her. The victim's battered nude body was discovered in a pool of blood by her 11-year-old daughter in their Mira Loma home. Coates pretended to be a supportive friend to the victim's son after the murders and even attended her funeral.

COATES REFUSES TO TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE BRUTAL MURDERS

Due to the sentencing guidelines in 1975, Coates was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole for the Riverside murder, which ran concurrent with the five-years-to-life sentence he received for the murder of his stepmother in Orange County.

Despite the fact that Coates made a full confession to his crimes after his arrest for the Orange County rape and murder, he later claimed that he accidentally discovered his stepmother naked in her bedroom, and she "reluctantly agreed" the have sex with him. Coates further claimed that he murdered her only after she threatened to tell his father Coates raped her. In 1991, Coates finally admitted he raped her to stop her from screaming. In the most recent 2007 present psychological evaluation, Coates is now claiming that the stepmother hit on him and the sex was consensual. He now denies murdering his stepmother, claiming he hit her after an argument, and she fell and accidentally died.

"Mr. Coates is not suitable for parole. He raped and brutalized two vulnerable, unarmed women who were mother figures in his life. He has flip-flopped on multiple versions of the truth and has never taken full responsibility for what he has done. He remains a grave danger to our communities," stated Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas.

"Gregory Coates continues to pose a significant danger to society. Coates did not admit to his brutal crime in Mira Loma until years later when he conveniently decided that it may help him get paroled," stated Riverside District Attorney Rod Pacheco.