EL CAJON, Calif. -- A preliminary hearing was held Tuesday for a man and his friend accused of robbing and killing a 73-year-old woman in her Alpine mobile home, 10News reported.

Brandon Hayes sat in the defendant's chair with his eyes lowered as his own father testified about the morning of May 16 when he went to check on his elderly mother, Eunice Cothron.

"I went into the kitchen floor, she was laying there. She had a rag stuffed in her mouth. I felt her; she was cold," said Alan Hayes.

Alan Hayes was one of many who testified at the preliminary hearing of his son, Brandon.

"She died from strangulation," said Det. Suzanne Fiske, of the San Diego County Sheriff's Department Homicide Unit.

Cothron, who lived at the Alpine Mobile Estates, believed her grandson was abusing drugs and stealing from her. Brandon Hayes is accused of murder and robbery, along with alleged accomplice Jeffrey Reed.

"Mr. Reed used a business card to distract her, and that's when Mr. Hayes rushed in and attacked her," said Fiske.

Prosecutor Kurt Mechals said after strangling his grandmother, Brandon Hayes and Reed went to Mission Valley on a shopping spree. From there, the pair went to Mexico to spend the $1,500 they stole from Cothron, prosecutors added.

"They bought drugs. They bought prostitutes. They drank," said Fiske.

Hayes and Reed were arrested five days after Cothron's death as they made their way back to the U.S. from Mexico.

Prosecutors said Cothron had taken out a restraining order against her grandson two weeks prior to her death.

After the hearing, Judge Patricia Cookson ruled there was enough evidence to proceed with the case. The defendants are charged with murder and special circumstance allegations of murder during a robbery and murder during a burglary.

District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis will decide later whether Hayes or Reed, or both, will face the death penalty or life in prison if convicted.

Cookson scheduled an Oct. 14 arraignment date for the men.