New Jayson Williams Trial OK'd

A state appellate panel on Friday cleared the way for former NBA star Jayson Williams to be retried on a reckless manslaughter charge stemming from the shooting death of a hired driver.

Williams had sought to avoid a second trial, contending that it would be double jeopardy because a jury already acquitted him of three other charges stemming from the same shotgun blast.

Williams, 38, has remained free on bail since his April 30, 2004 conviction on four charges stemming from a failed attempt to cover up the fatal shooting at the mansion he owned in Hunterdon County. He sold it last year.

Williams spokeswoman Judy Williams said they plan to appeal the ruling.

First Assistant Hunterdon County Prosecutor Steven C. Lember, who tried the case, did not immediately return a message seeking comment.

The ruling by a unanimous three-judge appellate panel endorsed a series of decisions by the trial judge, state Superior Court Judge Edward M. Coleman, including some that limited what evidence prosecutors can present at a new trial.

The panel agreed with the judge's finding on a retrial, in which Coleman said, "This isn't really a second prosecution, it is a continuation of the same prosecution. There was never a termination in the first trial. So, we don't have a double jeopardy situation."

The appellate panel, in a 19-page opinion, said it was "simply not possible in this case to determine which portions of the evidence the jury relied on to support its verdict of acquittal" on the top charge, aggravated manslaughter.

"That verdict may well be seen as the result of a disagreement between jurors, some of whom accepted some of the evidence and concluded that defendant had not acted recklessly and others of whom accepted either the same or other evidence and concluded that defendant had acted recklessly, but all of whom agreed that, whatever evidence was accepted, defendant had not acted under circumstances manifesting extreme indifference to human life," the panel said.

Williams retired from the New Jersey Nets in 2000 after a decade in the NBA, unable to overcome a broken leg suffered a year earlier in a collision with a teammate. He was suspended from his job as an NBA analyst for NBC after the shooting.

The defense argued that the shooting was accidental, saying a malfunction in the gun's firing mechanism caused the weapon to go off. Prosecutors contended Williams was handling the shotgun so recklessly that it amounted to a crime.

The shooting happened Feb. 14, 2002, while Williams gave friends and members of the Harlem Globetrotters a tour of his mansion in Alexandria Township, N.J.

According to testimony, Williams, who had a skeet-shooting range on his 65-acre estate, took a loaded shotgun from a cabinet in the master bedroom. He turned, uttered an expletive at Costas "Gus" Christofi, 55, possibly in jest, and then snapped the weapon shut, and it went off, according to testimony.

Christofi was struck in the chest and died within minutes. Williams dropped to his knees and wailed, "Oh my God! Oh my God!" and "My life is over," according to witnesses.

Witnesses testified that Williams wiped the gun down and then put it in Christofi's hands. The former basketball star stripped naked, pushed his clothes into the arms of a friend, told him to get rid of them, and took a swim in his indoor pool before police arrived.