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Lawrence Phillips Is Dead in Suspected Suicide in Prison

Lawrence Phillips, the star Nebraska running back whose N.F.L. career was derailed by his many off-field problems, died Wednesday morning in a suspected suicide, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said in a news release.

The department said Phillips was found unresponsive in his prison cell at Kern Valley State Prison shortly after midnight and was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Since 2008, Phillips, 40, had been serving a 31-year-4-month sentence for offenses including choking his girlfriend and driving a car into three people after losing a pickup football game.