SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Former NFL running back Lawrence Phillips was found dead in his California prison cell early Wednesday, and officials said they suspect suicide.
Guards at Kern Valley State Prison found Phillips, 40, unresponsive in his cell shortly after midnight. He was taken to an outside hospital and pronounced dead about 1:30 a.m., the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said.
He had been housed alone in a segregation cell since April 2013 after he was suspected of killing his cellmate. A Kern County judge had ruled Tuesday that there was enough evidence to try Phillips in the death of Damion Soward, 37.