SAN DIEGO -- Former pro running back Lawrence Phillips was convicted Tuesday of choking his girlfriend on two occasions in San Diego in 2005, once into unconsciousness.

Phillips, 34, faces up to 25 years in prison when he is sentenced Sept. 8 by Judge Kerry Wells.

Jurors deliberated a few hours before finding the former professional football standout guilty of two counts each of assault by means of force likely to produce great bodily injury and corporal injury to a cohabitant or spouse.

Phillips was also convicted of false imprisonment by violence, making a criminal threat and auto theft.

Amaliya Weisler testified she met Phillips through a friend in 2005 and the two began a relationship almost immediately. The woman said she and the defendant are still dating.

Around 4 a.m. on Aug. 2, 2005, Weisler said she and Phillips argued because "we weren't getting along sexually."

She said she put his clothes in a pile and questioned why he was living in her apartment. Phillips responded by slapping her across the face and putting his hand around her neck, she testified.

"He'd never been like that before," Weisler said. "He was always a sweetheart."

Weisler said Phillips grabbed her by the hair and choked her until she flipped herself over the couch and broke free.

"I woke up on the floor, unconscious," she testified.

Less than two weeks later, on Aug. 13, 2005, Weisler said she met up with Phillips at an apartment complex she wasn't familiar with. She said Phillips trapped her in a bathroom, slapped her, choked her and knocked her into a bathtub after accusing her of having sex with one of his friends.

Weisler said she was scared when she drove to Rancho Bernardo with Phillips so he could confront his friend, and ran to a nearby apartment when the defendant kicked in his friend's door.

The occupants of that unit called police, and when she came outside, Phillips had taken her car, she testified.

After charges were filed, Phillips fled to Los Angeles and was subsequently arrested for deliberately driving a car into three teenagers following a dispute during an impromptu pickup football game.

In October 2006, Phillips was convicted of assault with a deadly weapon in the Los Angeles case and sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Phillips was a star running back at the University of Nebraska in 1995 before being suspended from the team for assaulting his college girlfriend. He pleaded no contest and was sentenced to a year on probation.

The St. Louis Rams selected Phillips sixth in the 1996 National Football League draft. He went on to play for the Miami Dolphins and the San Francisco 49ers.

Phillips -- who remains in custody -- refused to attend his own trial and was not present when the verdicts were read.