FRESNO, Calif. — 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 and was a first-round draft choice by the St. Louis Rams in 1996. Phillips was released by the Rams in 1997 for insubordination. He also played for the Miami Dolphins and San Francisco 49ers.
Phillips is serving a sentence of more than 31 years.