Williams Will Face a Retrial

Former NBA star Jayson Williams will be retried on a charge of reckless manslaughter in the death of a limousine driver two years ago, prosecutors said Friday.

The announcement was made three weeks after a jury delivered a mixed verdict in Williams’ trial. The judge set a tentative date of Jan. 10, 2005, for the new trial.

Williams was acquitted last month of the most serious charge, aggravated manslaughter, but the jury was deadlocked, 8-4, on reckless manslaughter. The charge carries up to 10 years in prison.

The former NBA All-Star also was cleared of aggravated assault and a weapons charge but was convicted on four counts stemming from a failed effort to conceal the shotgun shooting of Costas “Gus” Christofi.

Williams’ defense maintained the shooting was an accident and that the weapon had misfired. Williams, 36, remains free on bail. He faces anywhere from probation to about five years in prison on the cover-up charges, but Superior Court Judge Edward M. Coleman ruled Friday that Williams would not be sentenced on those counts until the reckless manslaughter case was resolved.

Relatives of the victim praised prosecutors for pursuing another trial but were upset that Williams would not be sentenced sooner.

“He’s going to be out on the street for another eight months,” said Christopher Adams, Christofi’s son.

Christofi, 55, was among a group of friends and Harlem Globetrotters who were touring Williams’ mansion in the early hours of Feb. 14, 2002. He had driven some of the players from their hotel to a late dinner at a restaurant with Williams and his friends, and then took some of them to the estate.

Testimony in the 12-week trial showed that Williams took a loaded shotgun from a cabinet in his bedroom, cracked it open, turned, uttered an obscenity at Christofi and snapped the weapon closed. It fired once, sending 12 pellets into Christofi’s chest. He died within minutes.

Several witnesses testified that Williams then wiped down the shotgun and put it in the victim’s hands.

They also testified that Williams had persuaded them to tell authorities that they were downstairs at the time of the shooting, and that Christofi had shot himself.