COALINGA, Calif. (KSEE/KGPE) – Pleasant Valley State Prison (PVSP) officials are investigating the death of an inmate that is being investigated as a homicide.

At 10:43 a.m. on Friday, an officer reported finding 39-year-old, Richard Derderian lying unresponsive in a recreation yard. An inmate-manufactured weapon was recovered at the scene, officials say.

Staff quickly initiated life-saving measures and summoned emergency services to transport Derderian to an on-site medical facility for treatment, where he was pronounced dead at 11:13 a.m.

Police say 34-year-old Charles Goetting has been identified as the alleged suspect. He has been rehoused to the prison’s administrative segregation unit while the investigation is conducted.

Derderian was sentenced from Orange County on Aug. 30, 2019, to serve five years for two counts of first-degree robbery with a loss exceeding $200,000, two counts of preventing or dissuading a victim or witness under specific circumstances, and two counts of possessing or owning a firearm as a felon, according to officials.

On Oct. 15, 2021, he was sentenced to an additional three years by Kern County for the in-prison offenses of providing false statements to obtain unemployment benefits, obtaining aid unlawfully, obtaining money or property by false pretenses, making a fraudulent or false claim and filing a false or forged instrument, officials say.

Goetting, 34, was sentenced from Alameda County on June 28, 2021, to serve life with the possibility of parole for the attempted first-degree murder of a peace officer or firefighter with the enhancement of discharge of a firearm, second-degree murder and possession of a firearm by a felon or addict, according to officials.

The investigation remains ongoing.