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Prop. 47 deprived judges of the right to decide whether a crime involving less than $950 value in merchandise or other goods might also be felonious. File photo
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Sheriff investigates double murder near Vista

From wire reports

VISTA — A double-homicide investigation is underway today and a 49- year-old man is in custody on suspicion of shooting and killing his brother and his brother’s girlfriend inside a home in unincorporated Vista, sheriff’s officials said today.

Bradley Alan Coates was taken into custody Thursday night after his mother called 911 a little after 6 p.m. to report that Coates had just shot his brother and the brother’s girlfriend, sheriff’s Sgt. Jack Reynolds said. Deputies responded to the home at 2324 Lone Oak Lane where they found the gate to the property locked and barricaded.

Finally able to breach the gate, deputies searched the large property and inside the home found the two dead bodies, Reynolds said.

The victims’ identities were not released pending family notifications.

The sheriff’s Special Enforcement Detail responded to the property to help search for Coates, who was found in a travel trailer on the property “after an extensive search,” Reynolds said. Coates was taken into custody on suspicion of homicide.

Both victims sustained “trauma to their upper torsos,” Reynolds said.

Their cause and manner of death will be determine during an autopsy by the San Diego County Medical Examiner’s Office.