Former NFL Running Back Allegedly Kills Cellmate In California Prison

Drafted No. 6 overall in the 1996 NFL Draft by the St. Louis Rams, running back Lawrence Phillips showed a lot of promise on the field during his three years at Nebraska. Off the field, it was another story.

Phillips wasn’t short on talent, but he also wasn’t short on so-called “character issues” either. In fact, a number of teams that picked ahead of the Rams didn’t even have the running back on their draft board.

One of those teams was the Baltimore Ravens, who were seriously in need of a player to fill that position at the time. Smartly opting instead for future Hall of Fame offensive tackle Jonathan Ogden. One of the smartest moves the franchise has ever made.

Phillips was an abject disaster in the NFL, lasting just one season with the Rams. After being demoted to second string, he left the team’s practice facility in a huff, never to return. He was soon released by St. Louis.

He went on to very brief stints with the Miami Dolphins and San Francisco 49ers, with his professional career over by 1999. Though he had a few issues related to his character throughout that time, it was Phillips’ failure to perform on the field that ended his career—as is so often the case.

The problems really started for Phillips after football ended. In addition to various charges of alleged domestic abuse, in 2005 he was arrested for intentionally running his car into three teenagers following a pickup football game in Los Angeles.

According to ESPN, Phillips was “upset after losing” and accused the teens of “stealing some of his possessions.” He struck all three of the boys and nearly hit four additional bystanders. For that he was charged and later convicted of seven counts of assault with a deadly weapon.

In 2006 Phillips was sentenced to 10 years on the assault charges, which was upped to 31 years following the convictions on the domestic violence charges. Until recently, Phillips was just another inmate at California’s Kern Valley State Prison, but now he’s a suspected murderer.

According to prison officials, 37-year-old Damion Soward, who was serving 82 years to life for first-degree murder, was found dead in his cell on Saturday. Phillips was Soward’s cellmate, making him the prime, and perhaps only, suspect in a death that most certainly involved foul play.

The death of Soward isn’t the only inmate killing currently being investigated at the prison. Apparently a second man is also suspected of recently killing his cellmate. It is not yet known if there are any connections between the murders.

An internal investigation is underway at Kern Valley, in addition to that of the Kern County District Attorney.