The shooting case against former NBA star Jayson Williams was adjourned today and delayed indefinately after no formal date was set for his next court appearance, the New Jersey judge overseeing the case announced today.
Williams, the former New Jersey star facing reckless manslaughter charges in the fatal 2002 shooting of a hired driver, is close to reaching a plea deal, The Associated Press reported yesterday.
But the death of Williams’ father caused the former All-Star to miss this morning’s scheduled hearing. Last week, Williams’ father, E.J., with whom he owned a construction business, died in South Carolina.
A distraught Williams remained in South Carolina with his family.
Williams was acquitted of aggravated manslaughter in 2004, but convicted of covering up the shooting at his central New Jersey mansion.
He was facing retrial on a reckless manslaughter charge, which carries a 10-year maximum sentence. An aggravated assault charge linked to a crime involving a gun carries a minimum 18-month sentence.
It all started the night of Feb. 13, 2002, when Williams brought a group of friends back to his mansion after attending a Harlem Globetrotters basketball game.
Witnesses testified that Williams, who had been drinking, was showing off a shotgun in his bedroom when he snapped it shut and it fired, hitting driver Costas “Gus” Christofi in the chest. They also said Williams put the gun in the dead man’s hands and told them to lie about what happened. He was eventually convicted on four counts of covering up the shooting.
The 2004 trial jury acquitted Williams of aggravated manslaughter but deadlocked on reckless manslaughter. He was scheduled to be retried on that charge in January.
The first trial verdict spawned years of legal sparring that came to a head this fall when current and former prosecutors were forced to testify about a former employee’s use of a racial slur to describe Williams.
The slur was before the trial but was not divulged to defense attorneys for more than three years, leading to defense claims that racism had tainted the investigation. But state Superior Court Judge Edward M. Coleman denied Williams’ lawyers request to throw the case out because of prosecutorial misconduct and racial bias.
The 41-year-old Williams played nine seasons with the Philadelphia 76ers and New Jersey Nets before a leg injury forced him to retire in 2000. He attempted a short-lived comeback in the minor league Continental Basketball Association in 2005.
In 2003, Williams paid Christofi’s family $2.75 million to settle a wrongful-death lawsuit.
Williams has suffered several recent personal setbacks.
His wife filed for divorce earlier this year, and he was Tasered by police in a New York hotel after a female friend said he was acting suicidal. He was charged with assault in May after allegedly punching a man in the face outside a North Carolina bar, but charges were dropped.