SOMERVILLE, N.J. — Jayson Williams' lawyers angrily accused prosecutors in his manslaughter trial of misconduct Thursday, charging that they concealed a gun expert's notes and photographs from the defense and then misled jurors about his inspection of the weapon that killed a driver.

"Taken in its totality, Mr. Williams has been denied his right to a fair trial," defense attorney Billy Martin steamed to Superior Court Judge Edward Coleman on what was to be the final day of testimony in the eight-week trial.

Lead prosecutor Steven Lember admitted that he did not share the evidence with the defense, as required by law, until Wednesday night, but maintained it was an "inadvertent" oversight.

He then lashed back at Williams' defense, saying "ceaseless" attacks have turned him into "a virtual punching bag."

Attorneys for the former NBA star said they are weighing several options, ranging from asking to reopen their case to filing for a complete dismissal of charges, and will make a formal request Monday.

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The judge first heard the defense's claims during a lengthy closed-door meeting Thursday morning and quickly sent jurors, who are unaware of the accusations, home until Tuesday so he could investigate the matter.

The allegations concern the 12-gauge Browning Citori shotgun that Williams used to shoot Costas "Gus" Christofi. Williams' lawyers have spent the bulk of their case trying to prove the weapon was prone to accidental firings.

Browning chief engineer Larry Nelson testifies about disassembling the gun.

The prosecution's expert, Browning's chief engineer Larry Nelson, removed the wooden stock of the shotgun and exposed its inner mechanism as part of his Feb. 5, 2003, testing.

Martin told the judge the defense first learned from the prosecution of this "disassembly" Wednesday night at 8 p.m., the eve of Nelson's expected testimony.

During the trial, Lember told jurors that the prosecution objected when a defense expert took the gun apart for testing, and went on to elicit testimony from a police officer who said disassembling the gun altered crucial evidence.

He never mentioned that Nelson, his own expert, had taken the Citori apart several months after the defense expert Richard Ernest did.

Martin called the testimony "a lie."

"He allowed his own police officer, [Detective] Sgt. [James] Ryan, to testify under oath falsely," Martin said. "This jury now believes that this gun was not disassembled by the state."

The Citori shotgun on the floor at the death scene.

Prosecutors are required to share evidence from experts with the defense and much of the material in the case was turned over to Williams' attorneys months or, in some cases, more than a year before the trial began.

Lember and Nelson, who testified about the photos and his notes, suggested the prosecutor simply forgot to get the material from the expert and turn it over to the defense.

"It wasn't until yesterday when [Nelson] actually opened up his file that I saw his photos there and realized they had to be turned over — no doubt about it," Lember said.

When the prosecutor saw the photos, Nelson said, he appeared shocked.

"He was like, 'Oh!'" the gun expert said, bringing his hands up to his face in a gesture of surprise.

Defense gun expert Richard Ernest also analyzed the weapon.

Nelson said he tried to attach the photos and notes to the official report when he submitted it to Lember, but the prosecutor was concerned with meeting a court deadline and told him they would discuss the items later. He never brought up the issue again, the expert said.

In the report of Nelson's evaluation submitted to the defense, he refers only to performing an "examination" of the gun, not disassembling it. He said he considered his inspection a "partial assembly."

Williams' lawyers noted that he never used that term in the report either.

Coleman told Nelson and Lember to look for additional paperwork to support their claims and return to court Monday prepared to discuss possible sanctions against the prosecution.

"The question is down to: What's the next step? Where do we go from here," Coleman said.

Williams, who has appeared drawn and grim in recent days, seemed very engaged in the courtroom discussion Thursday. He whispered to his lawyers, wrote notes and, at one point, gestured to the soft-spoken Nelson to talk into the microphone on the witness stand.

Williams faces 55 years in prison if convicted of aggravated manslaughter and other charges.