Cellmate of imprisoned former football standout Lawrence Phillips found dead

Former NFL 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, 39, was once one of the nation’s top college football players at Nebraska. He played for the St. Louis Rams, Miami Dolphins and San Francisco 49ers. 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. He is suspected of killing Damion Soward, a 37-year-old inmate from San Bernardino County. – AP