By Harriet Ryan
Court TV
Prosecutors are expected to reveal Friday afternoon whether they plan to retry Jayson Williams for manslaughter in the fatal shooting of a chauffeur.
A jury in Somerville, N.J., deadlocked last month on a reckless manslaughter charge against the former NBA star.
The panel acquitted him of three other counts, including the most serious charge, aggravated manslaughter, and convicted him of four minor offenses related to a cover-up of driver Costas "Gus" Christofi's death in 2002.
Prosecutors will inform Superior Court Judge Edward Coleman at a special hearing whether they will simply drop the reckless manslaughter charge and proceed with sentencing on the cover-up charges or seek a second trial against Williams.
If they opt for another trial, sentencing would be delayed until its completion. It is unlikely Williams would receive prison time for the cover-up charges. If retried and convicted of reckless manslaughter, he faces 5 to 10 years in prison.
Lead prosecutor Steven Lember said the choice to retry Williams lies entirely with his boss, Hunterdon County Prosecutor J. Patrick Barnes.
"He will make the decision," Lember said.
He said Barnes is considering several factors, including the split of the jury, community sentiment, the wishes of the victim's family, and "his own sense of right and wrong."
The jury vote appears to weigh against retrying the case. Eight of the jurors wanted to acquit Williams of reckless manslaughter while four were in favor of conviction.
In interviews after the verdict, some panelists said they accepted Williams' claim that the shooting was an accident and believed his conduct was negligent, not reckless.
Immediately after the verdict, defense lawyer Billy Martin said the jury's decision to acquit on the other serious charges was "a very powerful voice" against retrial.
But despite the jurors' assessment, public sentiment after the verdict seemed to skew toward another trial. The prosecutor's office received a flood of letters and calls "almost unanimously" urging that Williams be tried again, Lember said.
"They come in, we put them in the file, they are looked at and considered by the prosecutor," Lember said.
The state's top prosecutor also expressed concern about the verdict. State Attorney General Peter Harvey even proposed New Jersey add a new crime, negligent homicide, to its books.
In addition, Christofi's sister, Andrea Adams, who attended nearly every day of the three-month trial, has said she wants Williams retried.
Williams, 36, a former All-Star center with the New Jersey Nets, shot Christofi in his master bedroom on Feb. 14, 2002.
The athlete was giving a group of houseguests, including four members of the Harlem Globetrotters, a midnight tour of his sprawling estate when he pulled a 12-gauge shotgun from his gun cabinet, cracked it open and then snapped it shut with one hand. The gun discharged, striking Christofi in the chest.
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