Ex-San Francisco 49er charged with murder in prison cellmate's death

By Curtis Skinner SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A former National Football League running back serving time in a California prison for domestic violence and vehicle theft has been charged with first-degree murder in the strangling death of his cellmate, a prosecutor said on Wednesday. If convicted, Lawrence Phillips, 40, could be sentenced to an additional term of 25 years to life, but he will not face the death penalty, according to Andrea Bridges, a deputy Kern County district attorney. Phillips, a two-time college football national champion at the University of Nebraska who became a running back for the San Francisco 49ers, was named four months ago as a suspect in the killing of 37-year-old Damion Soward.

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