Williams' Associate Cops To Tampering
A man admitted Thursday to tampering with evidence and witnesses after a limousine driver was shot to death inside Jayson Williams' estate, and will testify against the former NBA star as part of a plea deal.
Kent Culuko, 29, pleaded guilty Thursday in a New Jersey Superior Court to tampering with evidence and tampering with witnesses, and was admitted into the state's pretrial intervention program for first offenders. He agreed to testify against Williams and co-defendant John Gordnick, 44.
Williams is charged with manslaughter in the Feb. 14 death of limo driver Costas Christofi. Prosecutors say the co-defendants, both friends of Williams, tampered with evidence to make it look as if the victim, not the former NBA All-Star, fired the gun.
Neither Acting Hunterdon County Prosecutor Stephen Lember nor Culuko's attorney, John Lacey, immediately returned phone calls seeking comment Thursday.
Prosecutors said Williams was recklessly handling a 12-gauge shotgun when it went off, hitting Christofi in the chest.
According to court documents, Williams, Culuko and Gordnick then tried to replace Williams' fingerprints on the gun with Christofi's and conceal clothing Williams wore during the shooting, hoping to make police think the shooting was a suicide.
Williams, who retired from the New Jersey Nets in 2000, remains free on $270,000 bail.
Culuko and Gordnick were charged with evidence tampering, conspiracy to obstruct the administration of law and two counts of hindering another's apprehension. If convicted on all charges, Culuko could have faced 18 years in prison.
Christofi, 55, was apparently invited on a tour of Williams' rural New Jersey mansion after picking up the former NBA All-Star's friends at a Harlem Globetrotters game in Bethlehem, Pa., prosecutors said.
Judy Smith, a spokeswoman for Williams, said she could not immediately comment on Culuko's guilty plea. Williams' criminal attorney, Joseph Hayden, did not immediately return a call seeking comment.
Williams, Christofi and a dozen other people were at the house when the shooting occurred, including Gordnick, Culuko, Williams' brother, two children and four members of the Globetrotters.
Lember had said at the time Williams, Culuko and Gordnick were charged with evidence tampering offenses that several witnesses have come forward to offer information and are cooperating with authorities.
Lember said Culuko was either in the master bedroom or at the doorway when Christofi was shot. Gordnick came into the room a short time later, the prosecutor said.
Williams removed his clothes after shooting Christofi and told Culuko to dispose of them, court documents say.
Culuko helped Williams to wipe the shotgun clean and also told witnesses to lie to investigators about how the shooting occurred, authorities said. Williams also tried to position the shotgun used to kill Christofi at an angle to make it seem like the limousine driver shot himself, the papers said.
Williams told guests to tell investigators that everyone in the home had been in a downstairs recreation area when Christofi was shot in a master bedroom upstairs, the court documents said.
"He pretty much convinced everyone there to engage in this behavior — not just these two," Lember said.
A witness to the shooting told Sports Illustrated magazine in an article published in early March that Williams tried to put Christofi's palm and fingerprints on the gun and disposed of bloody clothes he was wearing. The magazine did not identify the witness, but said that two members of the Harlem Globetrotters have been offered immunity from prosecution in exchange for detailed testimony.
Williams owns a lacrosse team and had been working as an NBC analyst before the shooting. The network has said that he will not appear on air until the charges against him are resolved.