Jury considering charges against Jayson Williams
By Harriet Ryan
Court TV
SOMERVILLE, New Jersey (Court TV) -- A jury began weighing manslaughter and other charges against Jayson Williams on Tuesday in the shooting of a chauffeur at his mansion.
After receiving final instructions in the law from Superior Court Judge Edward Coleman, the panel filed into the jury room at 10:56 a.m. The jury deliberated about four and a half hours before retiring for the night.
The final jury includes six white women, two black women, three white men and an Asian man. Race became an issue in the trial when lawyers for Williams, whose mother is white and father is black, accused prosecutors of systematically excluding black men from the jury.
As is customary in New Jersey, alternate jurors were selected by lottery minutes before deliberations started. Those picked as alternates were three women, two black and one white.
The former New Jersey Nets star watched the jurors who will decide his fate leave the courtroom and then departed with his wife, Tanya. The couple and defense lawyers waited for a verdict in a small conference room down the hall from the courtroom.
Williams faces 55 years in prison if convicted of aggravated manslaughter and seven other charges stemming from the shooting of driver Costas "Gus" Christofi. A shotgun blast from Williams' 12-gauge Browning Citori struck the 55-year-old driver in the chest as he accompanied the athlete and houseguests on a midnight tour of Williams' 41-room home.
During the 12-week trial, Williams' lawyers contended that the shooting was an unforeseeable accident. They argued that Williams never saw Christofi before the gun went off and said the discharge was caused by a malfunction in the 10-year-old gun's firing mechanism.
Prosecutors did not dispute that the shooting was unintentional, but maintained that Williams' behavior leading up to the shooting was so risky and dangerous as to constitute a crime. In particular, they said he should not have handled a gun after consuming alcohol, nor removed a loaded weapon from the cabinet in a room full of guests.
The 43 witnesses who took the stand included eight houseguests, four of whom were members of the Harlem Globetrotters basketball team. Those who witnessed the shooting said Williams cracked open the double-barrel shotgun, turned in Christofi's direction and then jerked the weapon closed with a flick of his wrist. As the gun came together, the witnesses said, it fired, striking Christofi.
Two guests said they heard Williams curse at Christofi just before the shooting, and one of those men, Benoit Benjamin, said he saw Williams pull the trigger.
Williams is also accused of staging Christofi's death to look like a suicide and telling witnesses to say the victim took his own life. He faces four charges related to the cover-up, including hindering apprehension and witness tampering. The charges do not carry mandatory prison time.
Perhaps the chief task of the jury is to decide whether the shooting is an accident or a crime. If the panel decides the death was a crime, they must choose between two types of manslaughter: aggravated and reckless.
To find Williams guilty of the more serious charge, aggravated manslaughter, jurors must determine that he showed recklessness "manifesting an extreme indifference to human life." To convict on the lesser charge, the jury must find only that he was reckless. Aggravated manslaughter carries a sentence of 10 to 30 years in prison, while reckless manslaughter carries a 5- to 10-year term.
Notes sent by the foreman Tuesday afternoon indicated the jury was focused on one of the cover-up charges, tampering with witnesses. Jurors asked to rehear testimony of three eyewitnesses, John Gordnick and Harlem Globetrotters Chris Morris and Howard Paul Gaffney, about instructions Williams gave them to tell police they were downstairs and not in the bedroom.
Gordnick testified that Williams said, "Stick to the story" that the driver took his own life. Both Globetrotters said Williams specifically told them to say they were downstairs.
The question from the jury prompted much speculation by courtroom observers about the pace of deliberations. Had the panelists already determined Williams' guilt in the more serious charges, some wondered. Or had they perhaps decided to start at the bottom of the jury sheet and work their way up, others asked.
Jurors were given a copy of the detailed definitions of each charge to use during their deliberations. As they deliberate, the panelists also have access to the evidence, including hundreds of photos, the victim's bloody garments, and the five shotguns and one rifle removed from Williams' bedroom.
Rounds of ammunition are also in evidence, but the judge told the jury, "I have the custom of not sending live arms of ammunition in the jury room at the same time I send firearms into the jury room."
A few jurors chuckled and Coleman added that they should send the firearms out if they wanted to review the bullets.
In keeping with state law, the panelists were not permitted to take notes during the trial. They can ask to have the testimony of witnesses read back to them.
