Below is a chronology of events in the shooting death of limo driver Costas Christofi and the subsequent police investigation and legal action. Updates are in reverse chronological order, so that the most recent news is at the top of the page.

24 July 2004:
Williams' attorneys were back in action this week, filing motions to get the reckless manslaughter charge -- the only undecided count, it led to a hung jury in the first trial -- dismissed on Fifth Amendment grounds. They argued that a second trial would violate Williams' right to protection from double jeopardy, especially since he was acquitted of the more serious charge of aggravated manslaughter... In other Williams news, the Dwayne Schintzius dog-killing tale (see this column, 4 February 2004) has earned the Storm owner an animal cruelty charge, filed by the New Jersey Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. The shooting of Zeus, Williams' Rottweiler, came after Schintzius won a bet that he could drag the dog out of Williams' house. However, it happened too long ago for criminal charges, so the SPCA is pursuing civil charges, with a maximum penalty of a $250 fine. "There should be some penalty, some recognition, for the fact that he did kill this dog," state SPCA president Stuart Rhodes said.

15 July 2004:
Yesterday, Lember requested that Williams' second trial, on the one count which resulted in a hung jury (reckless manslaughter), be moved -- back to Hunterdon County! "Just as the perceived existence of pretrial publicity led the court to change venue to Somerset County, the even-more extensive trial publicity in Somerset County necessitates a return to Hunterdon County," Lember wrote. If the change of venue is denied, Lember will ask that a jury be brought in from elsewhere in the state. The retrial is slated to begin on 10 January.

21 May 2004:
Lember announced today that he intends to retry Williams for reckless manslaughter, the one charge the jury deadlocked in the trial which ended last month. Coleman tentatively scheduled the new trial to begin on 10 January 2005, and also ruled that all charges must be resolved before Williams is sentenced on any of the four guilty verdicts. In other news, Lember will ask Coleman to move the care back to Hunterdon County, where the shooting happened. The defense succeeded in getting the first trial shifted to neighboring Somerset County by arguing that pretrial publicity would impede Williams' right to a fair trial.

30 April 2004:
Williams was acquitted today of the most serious charges -- aggravated manslaughter, aggravated assault, and possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose -- but found guilty on all four obstruction of justice charges (hindering apprehension, tampering with a witness, tampering with evidence and fabricating physical evidence). A reckless manslaughter charge resulted in a hung jury, and Williams could be retried on that count.
Click here for full story.

29 April 2004:
Let the Verdict Watch begin -- the jury, which has been deliberating the eight charges against Williams for a total of fifteen hours now, has informed Coleman has it has rendered a decision on six of those counts. Aside from the jurors, though, no one knows which counts have been decided, what those verdicts are, or what the chances are that it will hang on the remaining counts. What we do know is that the jury has requested testimony readbacks dealing with hindering apprehension, witness tampering, and fabricating evidence; and that it has sought clarification of "possession of a firearm with a purpose to use it unlawfully against the person of another." The jury reconvenes Friday morning; a verdict could come any time after that.

21 April 2004:
The defense rested (for the second time) yesterday, but closing arguments (scheduled for today) were postponed until Monday because assistant prosecutor Katharine Errickson is ill. When the case finally goes to the jury, the defense will realize a couple of its most important victories of the trial -- Detective Sgt. James Ryan's assertion that the shotgun could not misfire may not be considered, because his tests could not be replicated; and jurors will be instructed to acquit Williams of the manslaughter charge if they find he was negligent but not reckless, and to acquit on the obstruction charges if they decide that Williams was panicking after the shooting and wasn't cognizent of his actions.

15 April 2004:
The trial will resume Monday, after Coleman rejected the defense's motion for a dismissal. "The defendant has had this cloud of an indictment hanging over his head for two years," Coleman said in explaining his ruling. "He has a right to have this case decided by a fair-minded jury... a jury that's been faithful to this trial for months. Let them hear the evidence." He said that Williams' attorneys had not demonstrated that their defense was compromised by the evidence violations. The defense did win a few victories today, though, including the opportunity to reopen its case and the ability to tell jurors about the prosecutions' actions. The defense asked that Coleman disqualify Lember from participating in the rest of the trial, a request that Coleman called "unusual;" he'll research the issue before ruling. However, Coleman did have scathing remarks for Lember, reminding the defense team that they may refer Lember to the state attorney general for ethics violations.

13 April 2004:
Coleman's ruling on whether to dismiss the charges, expected to come this afternoon, was postponed because of a death in Lember's family. The decision is now expected to come down on Thursday morning.

12 April 2004:
Coleman is expected to rule Tuesday afternoon on a defense motion to dismiss all charges against Williams, a request stemming from the recent discovery of previously-unshared evidence. Lember insists the omission was an accident, but testimony today at a special hearing suggests that it would not have been the first instance of prosecutorial misconduct. Larry Nelson, chief engineer at Browning Arms, testified that Lember pointed out that part of his report differed from that of a police ballistics expert. Pressured to do so or not, and a substantive editing or not, Nelson deleted a claim that the gun could not discharge if jerked close while pressure was applied to the trigger. Dismissal remains an unlikely solution; look for a reopening of the case and limits on the prosecution's rebuttal instead.

9 April 2004:
Williams' trial came to a standstill Monday when Coleman granted the defense some time to consider newly-found evidence (see this column, 4 April 2004), and the Storm owner's lawyers wasted little time in going for the jugular -- they want the case dismissed. "Mr. Williams will never be able to overcome such intentional misconduct by the prosecutor in this trial or any trial in the future," Hayden wrote in papers filed Thursday. "No lesser remedy [than dismissal] is appropriate ... The harm and prejudice visited upon Mr. Williams is incurable." Coleman has scheduled oral arguments for Monday on the motion to dismiss.

4 April 2004:
The defense rested its case Wednesday, sending the trial to closing arguments without the accused taking the witness stand. In opening statements, Martin promised the jury, "Jayson Williams will tell you what happened that night. Jayson Williams will tell you how this horrific, totally unforeseeable accident occurred." Williams, however, has apparently decided that Martin has presented a compelling case for acquittal and that his testimony will not be of any help. What could be helpful, though, is the prosecution's late discovery of evidence that was not shared with Williams' lawyers -- a prosecution expert's pretrial report did not explicitly mention that he removed the barrels and stock of Williams' shotgun as part of his investigation. Depending on how serious Coleman believes this breach of evidence rules was, a summary judgement for acquittal could be declared. That's highly unlikely, though, as is a mistrial -- look for the defense to reopen its case so that it can question witnesses about the new information.

28 March 2004:
The prosecution rested last week, giving way first to a series of motions to dismiss (all rejected) and then to the defense attorneys. The first two defense witnesses have been used to demonstrate Williams' attorneys' claim that the police investigation was shoddy and imcomplete. Richard Ernest remains on the witness stand as the new week begins. Ernest is a firearms expert who has challenged the testimony of state police detective Sgt. James Ryan, whose tests of Williams' shotgun showed that it operated properly and could only fire when the trigger was pressed and the safety off. Ernest insisted that the worn mechanism can easy malfunction, questioned Ryan's competence, and suggested that the state police attempted to hinder his inspection of the gun. Now entering its eighth week, the trial is expected to last at least another full week before rebuttal by the prosecution and closing arguments.

12 February 2004:
At long last, Williams' trial has finally begun, with testimony kicking off yesterday. Day One was not especially pleasant for the prosecution, with two witnesses -- New Jersey state police officers -- offering vastly different descriptions of Williams' demeanor. Thomas Muehleisen, a 15-year veteran who knew Williams through his charity work, portrayed the Storm owner as sober and upset about the shooting, while rookie Melvin Saunders testified that Williams was slurring his words, stunk of alcohol, and was asking others in the house "not to say anything because [Williams] had a lawyer coming." Because they spoke to Williams at different times, thoigh, Muehleisen and Saunders did not directly contradict each other. In other testimony, paramedic Matthew Wilson, the first to arrive on the scene, testified that Christofi's death did not appear to be a suicide, because the shotgun was found five or six feet from the body. Wilson also testified that while houseguests were dressed as if they had been out for the evening-- which they had been -- Williams was wearing a T-shirt and sweat pants, supporting the prosecution's allegation that Williams changed his clothes after the shooting as part of a coverup.

4 February 2004:
Williams won several key pretrial rulings today when Coleman refused to allow prosecutors to introduce the Storm owner's previous gun misadventures as evidence. The jury will not be allowed to learn about the time Williams fired a gun at an unoccupied car at the Meadowlands sports complex (See this column, 27 February 2002), nor will it hear from Dwayne Schintzius, a former NBA player who said, in a sworn interview, that Williams once shot his own dog in the head and forced Schintzius, at gunpoint, to "get this [expletive] dog off my porch, or you're next." Coleman also ruled that the jury can be told that a blood test showed alcohol remained in Williams' blood twelve hours after the shooting, but not that his blood alcohol content at the time was 0.12 percent, above New Jersey's 0.10 threshold for drunk driving. The first round of jury selection ended yesterday when a 64-person pool was completed; after more pretrial arguments tomorrow, court resumes Monday with the selection of twelve jurors and four alternates from that pool.

22 January 2004:
Earlier this week, Coleman slapped a gag order on everyone involved in the trial, after Williams made the rounds on television, telling his sob story to ABC's "20/20" and to Fox News Channel over the weekend. Coleman said that the 20/20 interview was "clearly designed to influence the jury pool," which is already struggling to produce 60 potential jurors for possible duty during the trial. After five days of jury selection, only 27 have progressed to the second round of selection. Don't expect the process to speed up any time soon.

14 January 2004:
Jury selection kicked off yesterday, with 320 potential jurors beginning to fill out the lawyers' lengthy questionnaires. After removing those unable to serve (or unable to be impartial), Coleman, prosecutors and Williams' defense team hope to have a pool of 60 jurors to choose from; sixteen will then be selected to serve. In other news, Williams told ABC's Barbara Walters in a recent interview that he is "terrified" of going to priosn and that he frequently visits Christofi's grave. "Me and my wife go every Sunday after church service. We go down every Sunday since the first week after Mr. Christofi was buried. We go down there and we pay our respects," Williams said.

5 January 2004:
Jury selection for Williams' trial is scheduled to begin a week from tomorrow, in a process Coleman expects will take about a month. Because the trial is expected to last two months, finding jurors will be no easy task -- and the media attention will only make it harder to pick twelve impartial jurors out of a pool of 300 candidates, three times larger than normal. Before jury selection can begin, though, there are a few minor issues to settle, Hayden tells the Associated Press.

2 November 2003:
James Kiernan, a New Jersey state trooper involved in the investigation of Christofi's death, has sued Williams and his lawyers for slander. Kiernan accuses the defense team of maliciously and inaccurately identifying him as an anti-Semite after a 1989 incident during a traffic stop of an Orthodox rabbi and his passenger. The rabbi complained that Kiernan was abusive, leading to the trooper's one-year suspension from the force. However, the suit claims that "nothing in the investigation nor in the conclusions made by the Superintendent of the State Police asserted any allegations of violations of any individual's civil rights or any abusive or disparate treatment based upon race, creed or religious affiliation." In related news, Coleman told the lawyers on Wednesday that his preliminary review of officers' personnel records hasn't revealed much (see: 17 September 2003).

28 October 2003:
In case you missed it in February, or just want to see the bobblehead for another five seconds, ESPN Classic will air its Jayson Williams SportsCentury program several times in early November. The thirty-minute program covers Williams' life from a child growing up in New York City through his NBA career, and tackles his current legal mess. The then-New Jersey (now Anaheim) Storm is briefly mentioned. Air dates (all times Eastern): Monday, 3 November, at 8:30 PM, 11:00 PM, and 11:30 PM; Tuesday, 4 November, at Noon and 12:30 PM; and Sunday, 9 November, at 7:00 AM and 7:30 AM.

19 October 2003:
In another victory for the defense, Coleman decided Thursday to move Williams' trial from Hunterdon County to neighboring Somerset County, due to heavy publicity. Williams' attorneys had petitioned for the change of venue, claiming that media coverage has "contained inaccurate and highly prejudicial information which would be inadmissible at trial." A defense-sponsored survey indicated that Hunterdon residents are almost twice as likely as Mercer or Bergen (other nearby counties) residents to believe Williams is guilty of manslaughter and obstruction of justice.

17 September 2003:
Coleman ruled yesterday in favor of a defense motion to examine state police personnel files, to look for signs of racial bias by the state troopers who investigated the shooting. Williams' attorneys previously detailed allegations of bias filed against the five troopers. Lember vehemently opposed the motion, arguing that "if your honor grants this motion in this case, you'd better be prepared to grant it in every case -- every case where the defendant is an African American or perhaps Hispanic." In other news from Tuesday's hearing (and elsewhere): Martin claimed that a defense psychiatrist has diagnosed Williams as manic depressive and that he may have been incapable of the alleged coverup due to "diminished capacity;" Lember announced that Dr. John Brick, who estimated Williams' blood-alcohol level by extrapolating measurements taken hours after the shooting (a method the defense planned to challenge as "junk science"), will not testify and that Williams' degree of intoxication will be established by eyewitnesses; and Henry Lee, the famous forensic scientist who testified during OJ Simpson's murder trial, said Monday that he is scheduled to testify during the Williams trial (slated to begin on 12 January 2004).

12 September 2003:
A change of venue hearing scheduled for Tuesday has been postponed at least until 16 October, a spokeswoman for Williams' attorneys said. The defense contends that local media coverage will prevent Williams from getting a fair trial in Hunterdon County, where the shooting occurred. No word on possible alternate locations for the trial, still tentatively slated for January 2004.

7 August 2003:
Coleman today rejected a motion to throw out the manslaughter charge against Williams, ruling that the defense failed to demonstrate bias or vindictiveness on the part of prosecutors. In a lesser victory for Team Williams, Coleman agreed that gun manufacturer Browning (maker of the shotgun which killed Christofi) should be ordered to supply its records on accidental discharges since 1980. The defense also was granted a hearing, scheduled for early October, to examine the techniques used to determine Williams' blood-alcohol level at the time of the shooting. The trial itself is still scheduled for January.

1 July 2003:
Today, Coleman postponed Williams' trial (the second time it has been delayed) and rejected a couple defense motions, including a request for ethnic and racial information on the grand jurors who indicted Williams. The defense wanted to know if one race or ethnic group is typically underrepresented on grand juries in Hunterdon County. "This is an issue of fairness, not race," Martin said afterwards. "Judge Coleman was not there at grand jury, nor were we. We're asking to go back to make sure, when there was no defense counsel present, that the process was fair." Coleman ruled that Martin may ask again once the information already available has been exhausted. He also shot down an attempt to try the manslaughter charges separately from the obstruction of justice and witness tampering charges. The new trial date in January 2004; it had previously been scheduled for this past February, then for September.

23 May 2003:
Williams' lawyers were in court with a handful of new motions on Tuesday, Coleman's deadline for pretrial motions. One was a popular defense request, the change of venue motion. "Given the cumulative effect of the torrent of publicity... it is now necessary that this Court change venue so that the defendant can receive a fair trial in front of an unbiased jury," Williams' attorneys wrote. In other motions filed Tuesday, the defense again requested that the indictment be thrown out, that a prosecution expert be prohibited from testifying, that Coleman review the personnel files of New Jersey state police officers involved in the investigation, and that Coleman assist them in acquiring records about the model of shotgun which killed Christofi.
Click here for full story.

5 May 2003:
Eric Allena, the off-duty Bridgewater Township (NJ) police officer accused of coming to Williams' home immediately after the Christofi shooting and allegedly telling witnesses to lie or withhold information from investigators (13 June 2002), was in court last week seeking to get official misconduct and witness tampering charges thrown out. Allena's attorney, Brian Neary, claimed that prosecutors were wrong to dismiss a prospective grand juror for conflict of interest without notifying the court and for using an unrelated case as an illustration for jurors. Motion denied.

23 April 2003:
Williams' lawyers petitioned the court on Monday for a racial and ethnic breakdown of the grand jury which indicted him on manslaughter and related charges, claiming that they need the data to determine if any race or ethnicity is routinely excluded on Hunterdon County grand juries. "The United States and New Jersey Constitutions require not only that the grand jury be summoned according to law, but also that the grand jury represents a fair cross-section of the community," said the defense attorneys, noting that the information could be used in future challenges. The defense also filed a motion to separate the manslaughter charge from the obstruction of justice charges, claiming that jurors would be prejudiced by the state's claim that Williams tampered with witnesses and destroyed evidence. Coleman has set a 20 May deadline for motions to be filed; Martin and Hayden said there are many more on the way.

8 April 2003:
The Star-Ledger of Newark reported recently that Williams paid Christofi's family $2.75 million to settle the wrongful death suit filed against him (see item from 5 February 2003). Lawyers for both sides refused to disclose the terms of the settlement when it was reached in late January... In other news, the Associated Press reports that Williams' criminal trial could begin around 15 September.

20 March 2003:
Williams today pleaded not guilty to all charges in the new indictment, which was handed up earlier this month to quash defense claims that the original set of charges was flawed due to prosecutorial misconduct. In other news, a state appeals court ordered the release of the 911 tape, agreeing with the Courier News of Bridgewater that the public had a right to access government records and that its release would not prevent an impartial jury. The paper quickly produced a transcript of the sixteen-minute-long call, in which Williams' brother, Victor, tells a dispatcher that Christofi shot himself.
Click here for transcript of 911 call.

13 March 2003:
The Courier News of Bridgewater, NJ -- last heard from in the Williams case in July 2002 -- was back in the picture yesterday, with Lember arguing before a state appeals court that a tape of the 911 call made soon after Christofi's shooting should not be made public, because it is evidence in the pending trial and because its release could complicate the jury-selection process. The newspaper's lawyers counter that the tape should be released under New Jersey's open public records law and that the public's access to the tape should not be determined by prosecutors. No date was set for a ruling.

11 March 2003:
Yesterday, Coleman dismissed the original indictment against Williams, then followed that up by setting an arraignment date of 20 March for the second indictment, handed up last week. The new set of charges, now including a weapons charge which brings the maximum possible sentence to 55 years, was sought by the prosecution after defense lawyers challenged the original set as flawed.

7 March 2003:
Williams' bid to have the original indictment thrown out was rejected today by a New Jersey appeals court, sending the matter back to Coleman, "to entertain the state's anticipated motion to dismiss this indictment as moot." Prosecutors are expected to ask for the first indictment to be thrown out and replaced with one handed up on Wednesday, an action taken to undercut the defense motion to dismiss all charges.

5 March 2003:
Williams was reindicted today, in a hope by Lember that the first indictment -- currently being challenged in a New Jersey appeals court as flawed due to prosecutorial misconduct -- can be rendered moot and the trial can proceed. Martin called today's development "an obvious attempt at damage control" by prosectors, and noted, "We believe we are vindicated that the way this indictment was originally obtained was improper." The new indictment, handed up by a different grad jury than the one which originally heard the case, adds a weapons charge, increasing the possible prison sentence to 55 years.

10 February 2003:
Williams will be profiled this weekend on ESPN Classic's award-winning SportsCentury biography series, to coincide with the one-year anniversary of Christofi's fatal shooting. The half-hour program will cover Williams' basketball career as well as his current legal troubles. No word on whether Williams' NLL connection will be mentioned. The SportsCentury profile of Williams will air on ESPN Classic on Friday at 8:00, 8:30, 11:00 and 11:30 PM; and Sunday at 11:00 and 11:30 AM (no ESPN or ESPN2 showings are scheduled). There may be additional airings at a later date.

5 February 2003:
Williams has settled the wrongful death lawsuit filed last fall by Christofi's brother and sister. Terms were not disclosed. After filing notice of the settlement, lawyers released a set of letters exchanged by Williams and Christofi's family, in which Williams expresses regret for the shooting and Anthony and Andrea Adams forgive him.
Click here for full story.

4 February 2003:
A New Jersey appeals court agreed to consider a defense motion to dismiss the aggravated manslaughter charge against Williams. Hayden and Martin accuse prosecutors of tainting the grand jury investigation by telling the panel that Williams exercised his right to remain silent and that Williams might have ties to the mob. The appellate hearing is slated for 12 March, delaying the start of the trial (set to begin 18 February) indefinitely.
Click here for full story.

4 January 2003:
Court TV has been granted permission to televise Williams' upcoming trial, slated to begin on 18 February. Lember told the media Thursday that Coleman, who will preside over the trial, has approved Court TV's request and has met with station representatives to discuss technical issues.

19 November 2002:
Sal DiFazio, Williams' former agent, was indicted today on charges of illegally transferring ownership of a weapon. DiFazio transferred ownership of a shotgun to Williams in January 2001 -- not the one used in the Christofi shooting -- because the agent mostly used the weapon on the skeet range of Williams' estate. However, New Jersey law requires that an firearms identification card be presented any time a gun changes hands, and Williams did not have such a card. DiFazio faces eighteen months in prison and $10,000 in fines if convicted.

31 October 2002:
The New York Daily News today paints a darker image of the circumstances surrounding Christofi's death than those previously released on the Associated Press wire. We knew of prosecutors' claims that Williams had cursed at Christofi earlier in the evening, but the Daily News is alone in reporting that the obscenities continued all the way to the shooting. The newspaper reports: "What the [expletive] are you doing in my mother[expletive] room, you [expletive] stoolie?" Williams asked the driver, according to a witness. Another guest at Williams' elaborate New Jersey home told authorities that the former NBA star called the driver a "mother [expletive]" seconds before the gun fired. Williams spokeswoman Judy Smith dismissed the state's claims as "fundamentally unfair and skewed," and promises that the defense "will present evidence that the death of Mr. Christofi was a tragic accident."

30 October 2002:
Responding to a defense motion to throw out the charges against Williams, prosecutors claimed today that the Storm owner was heavily intoxicated the night of the shooting and had humiliated and cursed at Christofi in the hours leading up to the limo driver's death. "At one point during the evening, the defendant singled out Gus and began cursing at him," court documents said. "The defendant's conduct was such that several of the witnesses were uncomfortable with what appeared to them to be an uncalled for public humiliation of Gus by the defendant." A ruling on the defense motions is expected by mid-December. ... In other news, Christofi's family today filed a wrongful death suit against Williams, demanding damages for causing the driver's death and attempting to cover it up. "It is only right that this celebrity step up and take responsibility to help ease part of their suffering," lawyer Ken Berkowitz said, contending that Williams owes the family for suffering and the support Christofi provided.

1 October 2002:
Defense attorneys yesterday filed motions asking for the charges against Williams to be thrown out or, failing that, have the manslaughter charges separated from the cover-up charges. Williams' lawyers claim that prosecutors violated legal standards by telling grand jurors that, during the investigation, the Storm owner exercised his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. Invoking that right can not be held against a defendant. Lember, who denied the allegations but said he expected them, will file a response by the end of the month. Coleman hopes to rule by mid-December.

10 September 2002:
Williams has added high-profile Washington lawyer Billy Martin to his defense team. Among Martin's most prominent clients have been the parents of missing intern Chandra Levy, as well as NBA stars Rod Strickland, Juwan Howard, and Allen Iverson. "This case is about an accident," Martin said. "We intend to present evidence at trial to show it is about an accident." Martin also promises to help jurors "see both sides of Jayson Williams," including his public service record. Before entering private practice, Martin was a prosecutor, counting the famous drug conviction of Washington mayor Marion Barry among his greatest courtroom victories.

6 September 2002:
Williams' trial has been set to begin on Tuesday, 18 February, four days after the first anniversary of the shooting. "Everybody wants to get the case tried and resolved," Lember said. "The defense wants it done, the state wants it done and the court is accommodating us on that." ... In other news, today's hearing to set the trial date was presided over by Judge Edward Coleman, who appears to be in line to serve as trial judge.
Click here for full story.

22 August 2002:
Gordnick pleaded guilty today to charges of tampering with evidence, admitting that he took Williams' bloody clothes away from the house and hid them in a car for several weeks. As part of the guilty plea, charges of hindering apprehension and conspiracy to obstruct the law have been dropped, wiping out a possible twelve years in prison in exchange for probation. Today's plea leaves Williams to stand trial alone in the fall.

24 July 2002:
Williams recently brought Jo-Ellan Dimitrius, who helped O.J. Simpson's defense during his criminal and civil trials, and Leonard Arnold, a former New Jersey Superior Court judge, onto his legal team. The addition of Dimitrius, who has been a consultant in over 600 trials, and Arnold, who served seventeen years on the Superior Court bench before retiring in 2000, indicates that Williams likely is unwilling to make a plea agreement with prosecutors and will take his case to trial in the fall.

16 July 2002:
The New Jersey state police has rejected a request from the Courier News of Bridgewater, which sought a copy of the 911 call made after Christofi's shooting (see 10 July report). Sgt. Robert Wilk, acting records custodian for the state police, said that the tapes are part of the investigation and thus are not open to the public under the law the newspaper was citing. The cable network CNN and the Express-Times of Easton, Pa., made similar requests last week, and were turned down for essentially the same reason.

15 July 2002:
In its August edition, the magazine GQ details the scene at Williams' home before and after Christofi was shot. The article, citing unnamed sources, claims that Williams directed several insulting comments at Christofi during the evening and that the Storm owner jumped into his pool after the shooting while Gordnick disposed of his clothes. GQ also states that Williams closed his shotgun "with a snap of the wrist" and that this caused the weapon to immediately discharge.

10 July 2002:
The Courier News of Bridgewater (NJ) asked the state police on Monday to turn over tapes of the 911 call made from Williams' home after Christofi was shot. The paper, in filing the requests, is citing the state's brand-new Open Public Records Act. Hardly a shocking move, with the proliferation of more liberalized public-disclosure laws in recent years and media outlets eager to use those laws (see also: death of NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt). However, the paper may not get the tapes right away -- they're part of the police investigation and the state Attorney General's Office must be consulted first. Expect a decision within a few days.

13 June 2002:
In an interesting twist in the Christofi shooting case, Bridgewater Township (NJ) police officer Eric Allena was charged yesterday with second-degree official misconduct and third-degree witness tampering. Prosecutors allege that the off-duty officer, one of several guests in Williams' mansion at the time of Christofi's shooting, told others in the home not to cooperate with police investigators. "[Allena] had an opportunity that morning and that afternoon to talk to the witnesses," Lember said. "He told them to withhold information or to not give truthful statements." The official misconduct charge was filed because Allena knew that witnesses would give false statements and did nothing in his role as a police officer to intervene, Lember added.

7 June 2002:
Williams and Gordnick were arraigned today on their respective charges, each pleading not guilty on all counts. The state is nearly finished with its investigation, Lember reports, and the defense team will soon receive a set of crime-scene photographs. However, analysis of DNA testing isn't expecting to be done until September, pushing trial back into the fall. Lember and Hayden will meet again with Judge Edward Coleman on 6 September, to gauge where pretrial preparations stand.
Click here for full story.

7 May 2002:
Williams was today scheduled to be arraigned on manslaughter and obstruction charges on Friday, 7 June. In other news, Culuko, who will testify against Williams and Gordnick as part of a plea agreement, reportedly received a death threat the day after reaching the deal with prosecutors. Police are treating the threat seriously and Lember may launch a probe into the telephone call, in which Culuko was told, "We got some cheese for a rat bastard. We're going to come over and mess you up."

2 May 2002:
Christofi's sister spoke out yesterday after learning that Williams had been indicted on more serious charges than expected. "I'm relieved to know that finally we're going to get justice," Andrea Adams said. "There was no way they were going to convince me it was suicide [Williams is accused of attempting to make it look like Christofi shot himself] ... He loved to drive. He drove and counseled people at the same time... He was a jokester, a prankster, always looking for the bright side. He had problems in the past [a drug addiction] but he overcame them." As for Williams' courthouse condolences to Christofi's family in March, Adams isn't accepting -- "[it] was too little too late."

1 May 2002:
Williams was indicted today by a Hunterdon County, NJ, grand jury on charges of aggravated manslaughter, reckless manslaughter, aggravated assault, evidence tampering, witness tampering, hindering apprehension, and fabricating evidence. The aggravated manslaughter charge, a surprise addition to those Lember was known to be pursuing, carries a thirty-year sentence but requires proof of "extreme indifference to human life." Lember would not specify what his investigation found to justify the more serious charge. Gordnick was also indicted by the grand jury, and will go to trial for evidence tampering and hindering apprehension.
Click here for full story.

30 April 2002:
Jayson Williams apparently isn't paying attention to news coverage of the shooting he is accused of, but his wife Tanya is, and she's not happy that people are rushing to judgment. "A very tragic accident occurred," Mrs. Williams tells the New York Post. "Jayson doesn't read the newspapers... and so how things have played out in the media is of very, very little significance to us now. The facts will come out. That's what we know." Yes, they will, and soon -- Lember has announced that he is ready to take the case to a grand jury for indictment.

25 April 2002:
Culuko has agreed to testify against Williams and Gordnick as part of a plea agreement revealed today. Culuko pleaded guilty in Superior Court in Flemington, NJ, to evidence tampering and witness tampering, admitting that he wiped fingerprints off the shotgun which killed Christofi and that he instructed others present in Williams' house to lie about where in the house they were at the time of the shooting. The deal will probably keep Culuko out of jail under a provision of state law for first-time offenders.

15 March 2002:
Culuko and Gordnick made their first court appearances on the tampering and obstruction charges filed against them on Monday, which could yield up to 18 and 13 years in prison, respectively. Neither entered a plea. After the hearing, Culuko's attorney, John McDonald, said, "After [Christofi] died, certain stupid and amateur mistakes were made by many present," adding that everyone present "did everything possible to save his life and give him comfort." Lember had a different view of the issue: "My interpretation is that [Culuko] engaged in criminal conduct." (neither Gordnick not his lawyer spoke to the press) ... As for Williams, he has yet another legal problem to worry about. Michael Colantuono, who came to Williams' estate on 21 March 2001 to install a heating and cooling unit, claims that in trying to escape an attacking Rottweiler, he tripped over a coworker, landing on and injuring his right wrist. Colantuono alleges that the dog belonged to Williams.

11 March 2002:
Williams today was charged with hindering apprehension, evidence tampering, witness tampering and conspiracy to obstruct the law in an alleged coverup after Christofi was shot. Prosecutors claim that Williams tried to wipe his own fingerprints off the shotgun which killed Christofi, attempted to plant Christofi's fingerprints on the gun, positioned the gun to make it appear that the wound was self-inflicted, disposed of his bloody clothes, and instructed guests to lie about how Christofi was killed. Two other men, Kent Culuko (who played in the NBA with Williams) and John Gordnick, were hit with similar charges.
Click here for full story.

6 March 2002:
A report in the current issue of Sports Illustrated suggests that Williams attempted to tamper with evidence moments after Christofi was shot. An unidentified witness claims to have seen Williams and another person attempt to put Christofi's palm prints and fingerprints on the shotgun, and that Williams disposed of bloody clothes he was wearing when Christofi was shot. The magazine also claims that four Harlem Globetrotters were at Williams' estate the night of the shooting and that two have been granted immunity in exchange for testimony.

4 March 2002:
After his first court appearance in the Christofi killing, during which he formally received the complaint against him, Williams passed along his sympathy to the family of the limo driver he is accused of shooting. "Me and my wife would like to send out our heartfelt condolences to Mr. Christofi's family," Williams said before invoking the traditional claim that his attorneys have advised him not to comment any further on the case.

27 February 2002:
Another ironic twist for Williams -- eight years ago, he appeared in newspaper advertisements for gun safety and spoke at high schools on the same subject. After being charged with reckless endangerment and possession of a weapon following an incident at Meadowlands Arena (now Continental Airlines Arena, where the Storm plays), Williams was allowed to enter an intervention program for first-time offenders, permitting him to avoid a felony conviction which would have barred him from owning firearms.

26 February 2002:
Williams has been dropped from his position as a studio analyst on NBC's broadcasts of NBA games while charges against him are pending. "NBC Sports and Jayson Williams have reached mutual agreement that it's best for Jayson to focus on his personal issues and to not be on the air until those issues are resolved," NBC said in a written statement. Williams is in his first year with the network.

25 February 2002:
As expected, Williams turned himself in to police today, and will be charged with reckless manslaughter, which carries a sentence of five to fifteen years in prison if convicted. Williams was quickly released on $250,000 bail, but not before surrendering his collection of firearms to authorities.
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23 February 2002:
Williams has agreed to turn himself in to state police on Monday and likely will face manslaughter charges in the shooting death of Christofi, New York television station WNBC has reported. "Williams was reckless with the weapon, [and] he was mishandling the weapon. Either way he is going to be charged," an investigator told the station.
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21 February 2002:
Williams' claims that he is a responsible gun owner took a hit today with the discovery today that in his book Loose Balls, the Storm owner recounts a close call from several years ago. Professional football players Jason Sehorn and Wayne Chrebet joined Williams for target practice. Distracted, Williams turned around while firing his gun, not realizing that Chrebet was kneeling in front of him, picking up a cartridge. The gun was mere inches from Chrebet's head.

20 February 2002:
Christofi's death has been ruled a homicide, a legal term which, in New Jersey law, does not imply intent. Authorities have not identified who they believe was holding the shotgun when it discharged, but media attention continues to swirl around Williams. No decision has been made yet on whether to file charges.
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19 February 2002:
The Hunterdon County medical examiner ruled that Christofi died mainly from internal bleeding due a gunshot wound to the abdomen, Lember announces. The prosecutor also infers that some of the witnesses may have misled investigators about the circumstances surrounding Christofi's death.

17 February 2002:
Williams' attorney, Joseph Hayden, denies reports that his client's recklessness caused Christofi's death. "There is no basis in fact for any allegation that Mr. Williams was involved in any horseplay with a gun," his lawyer, Joseph Hayden, told The Star-Ledger of Newark yesterday.

16 February 2002:
Authorities are now leaning towards the conclusion that Williams was either tinkering with the shotgun or twirling it in his hand when it discharged, several local newspapers and television stations are reporting. Acting Hunterdon County prosecutor Steven Lember refuses to comment on the reports.
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14 February 2002:
Costas Christofi is killed by a shotgun wound to the chest at the estate of New Jersey Storm owner Jayson Williams. Originally classified a suicide, the death, by day's end, is ruled "suspicious." However, no suspects have been identified.
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The notables:
Costas Christofi: Killed by a shotgun wound to the chest at Jayson Williams' estate in the early hours of 14 February 2002. Christofi, 55, had been hired to drive several of Williams' friends from a basketball game in Bethlehem, PA, to his estate in Alexandria Township, NJ.
Jayson Williams: Owner of the NLL's New Jersey Storm and a former NBA star. Allegedly shot Christofi by accident while giving approximately a dozen guests a tour of his 30,000-square-foot home in Alexandria Township, NJ. Charged with reckless manslaughter, evidence tampering, witness tampering, hindering apprehension and conspiracy to obstruct the law. Faces 55 years in prison if convicted of all charges. Pleaded not guilty in June 2002 to all charges. Awaiting trial.
John W. Gordnick: Guest at Williams' home at time of shooting. Pleaded guilty in August, while awaiting trial, to charges of evidence tampering, for disposing of Williams' bloody clothes after shooting. Charges of hindering apprehension and conspiracy to obstruct the law were dropped in exchange for the guilty plea.
Kent Culuko: Guest at Williams' home at time of shooting. Turned state's witness in April as part of plea agreement with prosecutors on charges of evidence tampering, witness tampering, hindering apprehension and conspiracy to obstruct the law. According to those charges, wiped Williams' fingerprints off shotgun and helped instruct other guests to lie about shooting.
Steven Lember: Acting Hunterdon County (NJ) prosecutor. His office is handling the criminal charges brought in connection with the shooting.
Joseph Hayden: Williams' personal attorney, and leading member of the defense team in the Christofi case.
Billy Martin: Leading member of the defense team in the Christofi case.
Edward Coleman: Judge for Williams' trial, as well as presiding judge for Williams' and Gordnick's arraignment.

The Associated Press contributes to this column.