Ex-NFL running back Lawrence Phillips, who was convicted in Los Angeles and San Diego counties for attacks on girlfriends and running down several people with a car, is now charged with killing his cellmate in a central California prison.
The former Baldwin Park High School standout, who played for the St. Louis Rams, Miami Dolphins and San Francisco 49ers during a three-year NFL career, is accused of strangling 37-year-old Damion Soward at Kern Valley State Prison in April.
Phillips, 40, is charged with first-degree murder and faces 25 years to life if convicted, according to the Kern County District Attorney’s Office.
He will be back in court Sept. 15.
Phillips, who was a top running back at the University of Nebraska, is currently serving more than 31 years for his Southern California crimes, including a 2005 conviction in San Diego for choking his ex-girlfriend into unconsciousness.
In Los Angeles County, Phillips entered a no contest plea in December 2000 to one count each of inflicting corporal injury upon a cohabitant and making criminal threats against his then-live-in girlfriend.
Phillips was convicted in October 2006 of seven felony counts of assault with a deadly weapon for aiming a car at a group of boys and young men after an August 2005 pickup football game near the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.
Three people were struck by the car, and a fourth young man was injured when the car struck a bicycle which then hit him.
— City News Service