Former Bengal Lewis Billups, Passenger Die in Car Wreck

Former Cincinnati Bengal defensive back Lewis Billups, mired in legal troubles since leaving the NFL, died Saturday when the car he was driving on Interstate 4 spun out of control, police said.

Billups was driving about 100 m.p.h. when the accident occurred. Also killed was Danny Green of Kissimmee, a passenger in the Corvette, police said.

Billups, 30, died at Orlando Regional Medical Center after being thrown from his convertible in the 1 a.m. accident, Lt. Jack Stacey of the Orlando Police Department said.

The accident occurred after a car driving in front of Billups’ Corvette changed lanes to exit the interstate in Orlando. The driver of the car, 20-year-old Marisol Soto of Orlando, stopped to tell police about the crash. She will face no charges.

Billups and Green died after they were thrown from the Corvette, which hit a signpost and then a guardrail that impaled the car, Stacey said.

Stacey said it was not known whether alcohol or drugs were involved, but autopsies were planned.

Billups, who lived in Orlando, was drafted by the Bengals in 1985 from North Alabama. He played for Cincinnati until 1991.

He had faced legal troubles in recent years. He was named in a lawsuit by a Seattle woman who claimed she was sexually assaulted by numerous members of the Bengals.

Billups pleaded guilty in March 1993 to making threatening phone calls to pro basketball player Rex Chapman in a dispute over Chapman’s sister, who had dated Billups. Billups was sentenced to a year in prison.