Phillips was housed with about 3,900 other inmates in the prison about 80 miles south of Fresno in California’s Central Valley.
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The incident occurred at 12:05 a.m. Wednesday, Jan. 13, when staff conducting security checks found Phillips, 40, unresponsive in his cell. Phillips, charged with first-degree murder, could have faced the death penalty. He was transported to an outside hospital where he was pronounced dead about an hour and a half later. Phillips ran for 1,722 yards during the regular season en route to Nebraska’s securing an undefeated season and national title.
Phillips was the sixth pick overall in the 1996 NFL Draft. He was sentenced for inflicting great bodily injury involving domestic violence, corporal injury to a spouse, false imprisonment and vehicle theft. He spent part of the 2003 season with the Stampeders.
Although a talented running back, Phillips was also notorious to San Francisco 49ers fans for his lack of blocking skills.
He was serving a 31-year sentence at Kern Valley dating from October 2008 for assaulting a former girlfriend and driving his auto into three teenagers.
“My anger grows daily as I have become fed up with prison”, he wrote last March.
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“It had nothing indicating anything like this”, Zane told USA TODAY Sports. He was accused of strangling his cellmate to death in April 2015, and was in the early stages of a trial for that alleged crime when he died.
