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Lawrence Phillips Dies in Prison; Suicide Suspected

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

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 pick-up football game.

Phillips was also suspected of killing his cellmate Damion Soward in 2013, the department said, and was in the early stages of a first-degree murder trial in that case.