Lawrence Phillips, a former NFL running back who is serving a 31-year prison sentence at a California jail, has been accused of killing his cellmate.
Kern Valley State Prison officials said Monday that they are investigating the deaths of two inmates, both as homicides. The first incident was the death of Damion Soward, 37, on Saturday at 12:46 a.m., when he was found unresponsive in his cell. He was pronounced dead at an outside hospital.
Officials say that Phillips, 39, is the suspect in Soward’s death.
Phillips was a star at Nebraska during his college days in the mid-1990s. Even then, he had run-ins with the law and was suspended for a 1995 attack on a former girlfriend during his junior season. According to the Journal Star, Phillips also spent 23 days in jail in California for drunk driving and violating his probation.
He struggled in three seasons in the NFL. He was released by the Rams in 1997 for insubordination and also had stints with the Dolphins and 49ers. In 2005, he was convicted of choking a girlfriend twice and on charges of trying to hit teenagers with a stolen car after a football game. He received a 10-year sentence for those charges. In 2009, he also received a 31-year sentence for an assault on a former girlfriend, notes College Football Talk.
Kern Valley State Prison officials also said that another inmate, Rattanak Kim, 41, was found unresponsive in his cell on Saturday. Kim’s cellmate, John Munoz, 24, is the suspect in that case. It’s not clear if the incidents are related.
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