SOMERVILLE, N.J. — A former teammate of Jayson Williams testified at his manslaughter trial Wednesday that the retired NBA star had his finger on or near the trigger of a shotgun when it discharged, killing a chauffeur.

NBA veteran Benoit Benjamin told jurors he was less than 3 feet away when Williams cracked open a loaded shotgun, hurled a string of profanities at driver Costas "Gus" Christofi and then snapped the gun closed.

"He flicked the gun up and it fired," said the 7-foot tall Benjamin, who played alongside Williams for two seasons with the New Jersey Nets.

The blast from the 12-gauge double-barrel shotgun ripped into Christofi's chest and he bled to death within minutes.

Benjamin, who had retired from the NBA and was trying out for the Harlem Globetrotters at the time of the 2002 shooting, told jurors Wednesday morning that he was certain Williams' finger was resting on the trigger when the weapon fired.

Jayson Williams listens as his former teammate testifies against him Wednesday.

But prosecutors never asked him directly whether Williams fired the gun and later in his nearly five hours of testimony, he seemed to back off those statements entirely. While holding the gun to demonstrate to jurors how Williams handled the weapon before the shooting Wednesday afternoon, Benjamin testified that he could only say Williams' finger was inside the trigger guard.

"Do you know if it was actually on the trigger?" Somerset County Superior Court Judge Edward Coleman asked.

"No," Benjamin said.

He also testified that before the shooting a shell was plainly visible in the barrel of the open shotgun. That evidence could be crucial to prosecutors tasked with convincing jurors Williams acted recklessly and "with extreme indifference to human life" when he toyed with the gun.

Coming in the fourth week of the trial, Benjamin's testimony — set to continue Thursday morning — was the most damaging yet for Williams and the most hotly contested by the defense.

During a long and fiery cross-examination, an attorney for Williams implied that Benjamin was a bitter and broke NBA has-been, jealous of his friend's wealth. The attorney, Billy Martin, suggested Benjamin cut a deal with prosecutors to provide incriminating evidence after Williams refused to set him up with a job in exchange for favorable testimony.

"Isn't it true that for reasons only you know you decided to come in here and lie to help convict Jayson?" asked Martin.

"I'm not lying to help convict anyone," retorted Benjamin.

Williams, 36, faces 55 years in prison if convicted of aggravated manslaughter and other charges stemming from the Feb. 14, 2002, shooting and its alleged cover-up.

Benjamin is the second eyewitness to testify against Williams and the first of four Globetrotters expected to testify. Williams and several friends attended a Globetrotters game the evening of Feb. 13 and invited the team to dine with them afterward and then go on a late-night tour of his 60-acre estate.

Williams' alcohol consumption is a key point of disagreement in the trial with some witnesses saying he appeared intoxicated and others saying he was not. Benjamin said Williams drank wine and a few shots of liquor at the dinner. Although Benjamin, who downed two $60 shots of cognac himself, said Williams did not appear drunk, he later told jurors that Williams drove his new Bentley so quickly and so erratically on the way back to his home that another passenger, Globetrotter Chris Morris, spilled his drink.

Benjamin said he was scared enough to utter a silent prayer.

"I wanted God to protect me," he said.

'What am I going to do?'

At the estate, Williams showed them what Benjamin termed "Jayson's toys" — an antique car collection and other vehicles — before they entered his 40-room mansion. As they were walking around the master bedroom, Williams pulled the gun from his cabinet and turned to face Christofi, who was standing less than 4 feet away. He said Williams, who had teased the driver earlier in the night, said, "What the f--- are you doing in my motherf---ing room, you f---ing stoolie?''

When First Assistant Hunterdon County Prosecutor Steven Lember asked Benjamin to demonstrate Williams' handling of the weapon, the strapping 270-pound athlete appeared wary of touching it and even recoiled from it in the jury box.

But after Lember assured him deputies had checked to make certain it was unloaded and installed a trigger lock, Benjamin picked up the gun in his right hand and showed jurors how, he said, Williams gripped the wooden handle at his side and put his index finger within the metal ring that encircles the trigger.

He said that, immediately after the shooting, Williams shouted, "What am I going to do? I've just f---ed up my life."

While other guests in the mansion that night have testified Williams staged the death scene to look like a suicide and ordered others to tell police Christofi shot himself, Benjamin said he was not sure who told him the phony story.

"It could've come from anyone," he said.

Benjamin said he initially told police he was downstairs when Christofi shot himself because he "wanted to help a friend." Two months later, he began cooperating with prosecutors.

He testified Wednesday under a grant of immunity from the state attorney general. In New Jersey, only that office can grant immunity. He could have been prosecuted on charges of giving false information to police.

Williams watched Benjamin's testimony closely from his seat at the defense table. With other prosecution witnesses, Williams has scowled, shook his head in anger and even banged the table with his fists. But for most of Benjamin's time on the stand, he simply glared at him.

The defense used the disparities between the two former NBA centers to try to undercut Benjamin's account. After a decade in the league, Williams, a 6-foot-10 All-Star, suffered a career-ending leg injury and retired with most of his $86 million contract. The well-spoken, gregarious Williams quickly turned his attention to business ventures, charity functions and a job as an NBC basketball commentator.

'My mink'

Benjamin was a journeyman player and testified Wednesday that he could not remember if he played for eight or nine teams. He also retired in 2000, but remained desperate to play professional basketball and joined the Globetrotters — which he referred to disparagingly as a "show team" — as a "springboard" back to the league, he said. He filed for bankruptcy in 1998.

Under questioning by defense attorney Martin, Benjamin said the shooting cost him his chance with Globetrotters and that he was "a little upset" with Williams because of the missed opportunity.

But he denied that he resented his friend's lavish lifestyle.

"I was happy for him because he had become a successful black man," he said.

He acknowledged that Williams frequently made him the butt of jokes and included some stories about him in his 2000 autobiography, "Loose Balls." Williams was telling some of those stories to the group at the restaurant the night of the shooting, Benjamin said. The punch line of one joke outlined by Martin has Benjamin insisting the word Caucasian begins with the letter K.

"It pissed me off, because I took it as him insulting my intelligence," he said.

He conceded that he would not cooperate with defense investigators who tried to question him a month after the shooting.

"I didn't trust them," he said.

Questioned by Martin about whether he demanded money from the investigators, he said he hoped Williams could get him a job playing on one of his charity teams, but that he never offered to trade a position for testimony.

The differences in the situations of the men was perhaps most poignantly illustrated in their clothing the night of the shooting. Williams was dressed in a conservative, pinstriped Armani suit. After the shooting, witnesses have testified, he rolled it up in a ball and handed it to a friend who discarded it along a highway. Benjamin was wearing a three-quarter length hooded coat of white mink which, in testimony Wednesday, he consistently referred to as "my mink."

He said that as soon as he got to Williams' mansion, he removed the coat and laid it on a couch to prevent it from getting dirty. After the shooting, he said, he ran downstairs and checked on the coat. When investigators ordered him to hand over his clothing for lab testing, he gave them everything but the coat, he said.

"I wasn't going to give them my mink," he said.