National Football League

Prison officials: Former Rams, Nebraska RB Phillips killed cellmate

Published Apr. 13, 2015 7:20 p.m. ET

foxsports

Troubled former St. Louis Rams running back Lawrence Phillips is suspected of killing his cellmate in a Central California prison, officials said Monday.

Phillips' cellmate at Kern Valley State Prison was found lifeless early Saturday and later pronounced dead, prison spokesman Lt. Marshall Denning said in a statement. Phillips is serving a sentence of more than 31 years. He was convicted of twice choking his girlfriend in 2005 in San Diego and later that year of driving his car into three teens after a pickup football game in Los Angeles. It wasn't clear if Phillips has an attorney.

He is suspected of killing Damion Soward, a 37-year-old inmate from San Bernardino County serving 82 years to life for a first-degree murder conviction.

Prison officials said they suspect a second inmate at the prison of killing his cellmate. It's unclear if the two are related. John Munoz, a 24-year-old sentenced to 42 years on for sexual battery and other charges in Los Angeles County, is suspected of killing cellmate, 41-year-old Rattanak Kim, who was serving a sentence of 35-years to life for conspiracy to commit murder in San Diego County.

Prison officials are investigating both deaths along with the Kern County Coroner and Kern County District Attorney, prison officials said.

Phillips, 39, played three seasons at Nebraska in the mid-90s, rushing for 3,102 yards and 33 touchdowns on 506 carries over three seasons, leading the Cornhuskers to victory in the 1996 Fiesta Bowl and the national championship, rushing for 165 yards and scoring three touchdowns in a 62-24 romp over Florida. But his collegiate career was dogged by off-the-field issues, as well, including a $100 lunch paid for by an agent which put his eligibility in question before his junior year, pleading guilty to vandalism and assault, and an arrest for an alleged assault of his then-girlfriend, a Nebraska basketball player.

That arrest ultimately led to Phillips' brief suspension from the team and, ultimately, a financial settlement with the accuser after she sued Phillips.

After leaving school with a year of eligibility remaining, Phillips was selected in the first round, No. 6 overall, by the St. Louis Rams. But he could never capture the success he enjoyed on the field. The Rams released Phillips in 1997 for insubordination. He also played for the Miami Dolphins and San Francisco 49ers before being suspended and ultimately cut loose by the 49ers in November 1999, again for insubordination.