domestic abuse that occurred in Los Angeles. In March 2006, Phillips was ordered to stand trial on charges of felony assault with a deadly weapon stemming from the August 21, 2005 incident. On October 10, 2006, he was found guilty on seven counts. On October 3, 2008, he was sentenced to 10 years in a California state prison; that sentence was subsequently reduced to seven years. While serving that sentence, Phillips was convicted in August 2009 for the assault on his former girlfriend Amaliya Weisler on seven counts, including assault with great bodily injury, false imprisonment, making a criminal threat, and auto theft. On December 18, 2009, Phillips was sentenced to 25 years in prison on the 2009 convictions, to run consecutive to the 2008 sentence, for a total of 31 years. Phillips, California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation number G31982, was admitted to Kern Valley State Prison on October 16, 2008. Under California law, since his crimes harmed other persons, he was required to serve at least 85 percent of his sentence before becoming eligible for parole with good behavior, meaning that he would not have even been considered for release until he was 57 years old. On April 12, 2015, Phillips' cellmate, Damion Soward, the cousin of former NFL wide receiver R. Jay Soward, was found dead in the cell the two men shared. Soward, who was serving a sentence of 82 years to life for a murder conviction, was choked to death, and Phillips was regarded as the prime suspect in the case. On September 1, Phillips was charged with first-degree murder in Soward's death. On November 9, the prosecutor was granted a motion to reconsider whether to seek the death penalty. Phillips was awaiting trial in segregated custody when he was found unresponsive in his cell by correctional officers around midnight on January 12, 2016. Phillips was pronounced dead at 1:30 a.m. in a suspected suicide. The day before, a judge ruled that there was enough evidence to bind Phillips over for trial in the murder of Soward. On January 15, it was announced that Phillips' family agreed to donate his brain to be examined for chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) at Boston University. A coroner determined that Phillips hanged himself in prison. He had a do not resuscitate note taped to his chest. Phillips' funeral was held on January 23 at Christ's Church of the Valley