Lawrence Phillips strangled himself with a bedsheet strung from a TV shelf in his California prison cell, concludes the final report of the coroner who investigated the former Nebraska football star’s death.
The long-awaited report offers other new details of what prison officials found when they entered Phillips’ cell on Jan. 13, including a “Do Not Resuscitate’’ note taped to his chest. Phillips was hanging in a seated position, apparently because the TV shelf was so low to the floor.
There were other such details in the report, but nothing that on its face would suggest that the death of the talented but flawed Phillips was anything but self-inflicted.
“After completing an investigation in conjunction with the California Department of Corrections, the death of Lawrence Lamond Phillips was determined to be a suicide,” concluded the coroner’s report.