Ex-NFL Star Lawrence Phillips Dies After Being Found Unresponsive in Prison Cell

MStars News has learned that ex-NFL star Lawrence Phillips was found unresponsive this week in his prison cell and later died after he was taken to the hospital.

According to USA Today, Phillips, who was facing murder charges for allegedly killing his former cellmate, 37-year-old, Damion Soward, was serving time behind bars at the Kern Valley State Prison. A California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation spokeswoman Terry Thornton confirmed that the former San Fransisco 49ers died on Wednesday and his death is being investigated as a suicide.

Phillips had been serving time for a 2008 conviction before he allegedly killed Soward.

MStars News previously learned that Phillips was sentenced to more than 31 years after he was found guilty of choking his girlfriend twice in 2005. Later that year Phillips was also in trouble for driving his car into three teens after a pickup football game in Los Angeles.

The 40-year-old was facing a possible death penalty for murder. Before he died, a Superior Court judge ruled on Tuesday that there was enough evidence aka "sufficient cause to believe'' that the football star had indeed committed murder, and killed Soward.

Phillips' lawyer, Jesse Whitten, claimed that there was no evidence that his client was suicidal.

"There was nothing about his demeanor that made me think he was suicidal at all, or depressed,'' Whitten explained. "He was very confident about winning this case and he was even optimistic about his appeal on his prior cases.''

It's so sad that Phillips' life ended tragically. At one time he was one of the nation's top college football players at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Phillips' former coach at Nebraska Tom Osborne was shocked to learn that the former star had died. Osborne claimed that Phillips had been in good spirits on Wednesday before his was found unresponsive. He also said that Phillips was loyal but had a lot of demons in life.

"He was an intelligent person and had some good qualities," Osborne told ESPN. "He was very loyal to his friends, and yet he had some anger issues and couldn't overcome the demons in his life."