Source: George Gojkovich / Getty
Former NFL running back Lawrence Phillips was found dead in a a California jail cell earlier today. Phillips was being investigated for killing his cell mate while incarcerated earlier this year.
Prison officials believe that Phillips’ cause of death was suicide.
Lawrence Phillips, the former football star facing murder charges, was found unresponsive early Wednesday at Kern Valley State Prison and rushed to a hospital where he was pronounced dead, California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation spokeswoman Terry Thornton told USA TODAY Sports.
The death is being investigated as a suspected suicide, according to press release from the department.
Phillips, 40, was facing the possible death penalty in the alleged murder of his former cellmate at Kern Valley State Prison. At a preliminary hearing on Tuesday, a Superior Court judge ruled there was “sufficient cause to believe” Phillips committed murder, according to court records, which cleared the way for a trial that could have ended with Phillips getting the death penalty.
Prior to his cellmate’s death Phillips had started to express his frustration with being in jail.
The month before his cellmate’s death, Phillips wrote a letter to his mother saying he thought his anger might lead to his death or someone else’s death.
“I feel myself very close to snapping,” wrote Phillips in a letter dated March 5, 2015. “My anger grows daily as I have become fed up with prison. I feel my anger is near bursting and that will result in my death or the death of someone else.”
Phillips was the star running back on the University of Nebraska’s national championship teams in 1994 and 1995, and a first-round pick, sixth overall, in the 1996 NFL draft. He played for three seasons with the St. Louis Rams, Miami Dolphins and San Francisco 49ers. In 2009, he was sentenced to 31 years in prison for two separate incidents — driving his car into three teenagers and assaulting an ex-girlfriend.
