Man convicted of Merced double homicide dies in prison
vpatton@mercedsunstar.comDecember 30, 2013   A 51-year-old man
on California’s death row for committing a 1998 Merced double
murder has died of natural causes.  Albert Ruiz was pronounced
dead early Sunday in a hospital unit at California Medical
Facility in Vacaville, according to a statement from the
California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.  A
Merced County jury convicted Ruiz in October 2002 of the murder
and robbery of liquor store owner Abdo Muhammed, 42, and
customer Antonio Cruz, 74. The jury subsequently recommended the
death penalty for Ruiz, which Judge Frank Dougherty affirmed.
Ruiz shot the two men to death on May 22, 1998, at Merced
Liquors and Grocery Store, 550 E. Main St. Both victims were
killed with gunshots to the head from less than a foot away,
according to law enforcement.  The case was handled in 2002 by
prosecutors Larry Morse II and David Moranda. Morse now serves
as Merced County’s district attorney, and Moranda