Former NFL first-round draft pick Lawrence Phillips stands accused of murdering his prison cellmate, the cousin of another NFL first-round draft pick.
Damion Soward, the convicted murderer who was found unresponsive on Saturday in the cell he shared with Phillips, was the first cousin of R. Jay Soward, their grandmother told TMZ. R. Jay Soward was a first-round pick of the Jaguars in 2000 and, like Phillips, a major bust: Soward caught just 14 passes for 154 yards in his rookie year, then never played in the NFL again after that because of substance-abuse suspensions.
Phillips has been moved to the segregation unit of the Kern Valley State Prison after the death of Damion Soward. Phillips has been in prison since 2008 after convictions of crimes including domestic violence, car theft and trying to run down a group of teenagers over a dispute about a pickup football game.