Jayson Williams staged a death scene, told witnesses to lie, and it still took eight years and a hung jury before the state secured any conviction that actually accounted for Costas Christofi dying.
Former NBA All-Star Jayson Williams accidentally shot and killed his hired limousine driver, Costas Christofi, at his New Jersey estate on February 14, 2002, while showing off a shotgun. Witnesses testified Williams staged the scene to look like suicide and told them to lie to police. A 2004 jury acquitted him of aggravated manslaughter, convicted him on four cover-up charges, and deadlocked on reckless manslaughter. After years of delay, Williams pleaded guilty in January 2010 to aggravated assault, a lesser charge, and was sentenced to five years. He was released in 2012, a full decade after the shooting.
Key Points
Williams shot Christofi in the chest on February 14, 2002, while handling a 12-gauge shotgun in his bedroom without checking whether it was loaded or where it was pointed.
Witnesses testified Williams wiped his fingerprints from the gun, placed it in Christofi’s hands, and instructed others present to tell police it looked like a suicide.
Williams settled a civil wrongful death lawsuit from Christofi’s family for roughly $2.75 million in 2003, a year before his criminal trial began.
A 2004 jury acquitted Williams of aggravated manslaughter, convicted him on four charges related to the cover-up, and deadlocked on the remaining reckless manslaughter count.
After years of legal delays, Williams pleaded guilty in January 2010 to aggravated assault, a lesser charge than manslaughter, and was sentenced to five years, serving roughly two before his 2012 release.
Quick FAQs
Was Williams ever convicted of causing Christofi’s death directly?
Not through a manslaughter conviction. He was acquitted of aggravated manslaughter, the jury deadlocked on reckless manslaughter, and he ultimately pleaded guilty to aggravated assault, a weapons-related charge, in 2010.
What was Williams actually convicted of at his 2004 trial?
Four charges tied to the cover-up: witness tampering, evidence tampering, fabricating evidence, and hindering apprehension or prosecution.
Why did the case take eight years to resolve?
A hung jury on the most serious remaining charge triggered a scheduled retrial that was delayed repeatedly for years through legal motions and negotiations before Williams ultimately pleaded guilty.
The Shooting
On February 14, 2002, Williams was entertaining guests, including several members of the Harlem Globetrotters and his hired limousine driver, Costas “Gus” Christofi, at his 65-acre estate in Alexandria Township, New Jersey. Witnesses testified Williams was showing off a 12-gauge shotgun from his collection in his bedroom when he snapped it closed without checking its chamber or where it was pointed. The gun fired, striking Christofi in the chest. He bled to death within minutes from internal injuries.
The Staging
A 911 call from the estate suggested Christofi had shot himself. Witnesses later testified that was not an accident of confusion: Williams allegedly wiped his own fingerprints off the weapon, placed it in Christofi’s hands, changed his clothes, and told the people present to tell police the same false story. Williams settled a wrongful death lawsuit from Christofi’s family for roughly $2.75 million in 2003, before his criminal trial had even begun.
The staging effort is the part of this case with the least ambiguity. Multiple witnesses corroborated it, and the jury convicted Williams on every charge tied to the cover-up. The state’s difficulty was never proving what Williams did after the shot. It was securing any conviction for the shot itself.
The Lab’s free tools help you follow what actually happens after a jury deadlocks: whether prosecutors retry, negotiate, or let years pass, and what that delay does to a case’s outcome.
Explore The Lab ?Eight Years, Then a Lesser Charge
After a three-month trial in 2004, a jury acquitted Williams of aggravated manslaughter and aggravated assault with a weapon, and convicted him on four counts related to the cover-up: witness tampering, evidence tampering, fabricating evidence, and hindering apprehension. Jurors told reporters afterward they did not believe Williams intended to kill Christofi, but the panel deadlocked entirely on the remaining reckless manslaughter charge, forcing a mistrial on that count and triggering a scheduled retrial.
That retrial did not happen for nearly six more years. Defense motions, a proposed plea deal that collapsed at the last minute, and a change of legal counsel repeatedly delayed proceedings. In January 2010, days after Williams was separately charged with drunken driving following a car crash, he pleaded guilty to aggravated assault, a charge that replaced the outstanding reckless manslaughter count and carried a mandatory minimum sentence under New Jersey’s gun-crime statute. He was sentenced that February to five years, with 18 months of parole ineligibility, and was released in April 2012.
Timeline Explorer: A Decade to Resolution
The Shooting
Williams’s shotgun fires while he is handling it, killing Christofi. Witnesses later testify he staged the scene and coached them to lie.
Civil Settlement
Williams settles the Christofi family’s wrongful death suit for roughly $2.75 million, a year before his criminal trial begins.
Split Verdict
A jury acquits Williams of aggravated manslaughter, convicts him on four cover-up charges, and deadlocks on reckless manslaughter.
The jury believed the cover-up beyond a reasonable doubt. It could not agree on the underlying act that made a cover-up necessary in the first place.
Years of Delay
A scheduled retrial on the reckless manslaughter charge is repeatedly postponed through legal motions and a collapsed plea negotiation.
Resolution
Williams pleads guilty to a lesser aggravated assault charge and is sentenced to five years, eight years after the trial that failed to resolve the case.
“I didn’t look in the direction the muzzle of the gun was pointed.” That single admission, made under oath at his 2010 plea hearing, is the closest the record ever got to Williams describing what actually happened.
Why This Case Matters
This installment closes out Foul Trouble’s opening run on a case where the cover-up was proven beyond dispute and the underlying act never was, at least not under a charge that named it directly. An eight-year gap between a shooting and its final legal resolution is itself a kind of institutional outcome, one shaped by a defendant with the resources to sustain years of litigation and delay in a way most defendants facing a comparable charge cannot. The state secured accountability for the lie. It never fully secured accountability for the death the lie was told to hide.
Investigation Scorecard
Sources
Court RecordState Attorney General StatementContemporary PressNew Jersey Office of the Attorney General statement on Williams’s 2010 sentencing.
CNN and CBS News reporting on the 2004 trial verdict and 2010 guilty plea.
History.com chronology of the case from indictment through final sentencing.
Citing This Article
Bluebook: Williams, Rita. Foul Trouble: Eight Years for a Charge That Was Never Manslaughter, Clutch Justice (Aug. 14, 2026), https://clutchjustice.com/2026/08/14/jayson-williams-foul-trouble-04/.
APA 7: Williams, R. (2026, August 14). Foul trouble: Eight years for a charge that was never manslaughter. Clutch Justice. https://clutchjustice.com/2026/08/14/jayson-williams-foul-trouble-04/
MLA 9: Williams, Rita. “Foul Trouble: Eight Years for a Charge That Was Never Manslaughter.” Clutch Justice, 14 Aug. 2026, clutchjustice.com/2026/08/14/jayson-williams-foul-trouble-04/.
Chicago: Williams, Rita. “Foul Trouble: Eight Years for a Charge That Was Never Manslaughter.” Clutch Justice, August 14, 2026. https://clutchjustice.com/2026/08/14/jayson-williams-foul-trouble-04/.
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