Troubled former NFL running back Lawrence Phillips is a suspect in the murder of his cellmate, Damion Soward, in a California prison. Phillips is currently serving a 31-year sentence for a crime spree that included two domestic violence incidents with his girlfriend, and him running over three teenagers with a stolen car.

The domestic violence incidents happened in 2005, when Phillips choked his girlfriend on two separate occasions. Later that year he drove a stolen car into three teenagers after an argument broke out during a pickup football game.

Phillips was a superstar running back at Nebraska from 1993 to 1995, and played in the NFL for the St. Louis Rams, Miami Dolphins, and San Francisco 49ers. He had limited stays with all three clubs because of his rampant off-the-field issues, which first became a problem while he was still in college.

While at Nebraska, Phillips burst into his girlfriend's apartment and dragged her down three flights of stairs by her hair. He was arrested three times during his time with the St. Louis Rams, arrested for hitting a woman at a nightclub while a member of the Dolphins, and assaulted a girlfriend in 2000 when he was not under contract. .

In the 2005 incident with the stolen car, a prosecutor said Phillips was "agitated" because his team was losing a pickup football game. He accused the people he was playing with of stealing from him, then drove a stolen car into seven people, injuring three. The people injured were 14, 15 and 19 years old and sustained "severe bumps and bruises and cuts." He was convicted of seven counts of assault with a deadly weapon.

[USA Today]