A state prison inmate from Santa Maria has been killed in what officials have described as a homicide.
At 6:21 a.m. Friday, Kern Valley State Prison staff observed an inmate lying on the cell floor appearing to have serious injuries with his cellmate standing nearby, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
Fernando Camarillo-Cervantes, 22, of Santa Maria was pronounced dead at 7 a.m. despite efforts to render aid, CDCR officials said.
His cellmate, Albert Gonzalez, has been in restricted housing pending an investigation by the KVSP Investigative Services Unit and the Kern County District Attorney’s Office.
The Office of the Inspector General has been notified, and the Kern County Coroner’s Office will determine Camarillo-Cervantes’ official cause of death.
Camarillo-Cervantes entered the state prison custody on Sept. 9, 2022.
He was sentenced to 21 years for voluntary manslaughter with an enhancement for the use of a firearm.
He also was sentenced to three years for assault with a firearm to be served concurrently with the first sentence.
In June 2021, Camarillo-Cervantes, then 18, was arrested days after a Memorial Day weekend shooting in the area of Boone and Curryer streets in Santa Maria. Police identified the victim of that shooting as Rafael Santos Toribio, 38, of Santa Maria.
Additionally, while incarcerated, Camarillo-Cervantes was convicted of possession/manufacture of a deadly weapon by an incarcerated person, an in-prison offense. The conviction in Riverside County led to a three-year sentence.
Gonzalez, 50, was most recently returned from parole on Sept. 24, 2019, with a new term from Los Angeles County. He was sentenced to 11 years for carjacking as a second striker with an enhancement for a prior felony conviction of a serious offense.
He was also sentenced by San Bernardino County to eight months for attempting to possess or own a firearm as a felon or addict as a second striker to be served concurrently with the first sentence.
The Delano prison opened in 2005 and houses more than 3,100 minimum and high-security custody inmates.