A 44-year-old state prison inmate from Fullerton serving 50 years to life for fatally gunning down a 19-year-old changing a tire has died following an apparent conflict with his cellmate, who also died, state officials said.

Charles Thomas Ramirez was taken in for medical treatment but died from his injuries at Kern Valley State Prison, according to the California Department of Corrections.

Abraham Morales, 37, who was serving life in prison without the possibility of parole for a murder in Ventura County, was found unresponsive in the cell he shared with Ramirez during a routine security check on Friday morning.

Ramirez was sent to the prison in 2014 for killing Larry Ruiz on March 17, 2011. He was convicted of first-degree murder on Dec. 5, 2013.

As then-Orange County Superior Court Judge James Stotler was sentencing Ramirez he told the defendant, “You made a bad judgment call and, unfortunately, it was so bad there have to be consequences.”

Ramirez’s brother-in-law Marc Tomas Luna testified against Ramirez in the trial.

On the night of the shooting, Luna went to a Narcotics Anonymous meeting and as he was returning home two men attempted to rob him, and Luna dropped his cell phone as he fled.

When he got home he realized he dropped the phone and told Ramirez what happened.

Ramirez joined Luna in a search for the phone. As the two walked down an alley near the 110 block of West Williamson Avenue, they spotted Ruiz, who was changing a tire on a minivan, according to the prosecutor in the case, Steve McGreevy.

Luna told his brother-in-law that Ruiz couldn’t have been one of the would-be robbers because his attackers were White, McGreevy said.

But Ramirez punched Ruiz and then shot him in the head, McGreevy said.

Ramirez warned Luna not to talk to police, but he later cooperated with investigators.

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