Wednesday, February 11, 2004

BY MATTHEW REILLY
Star-Ledger Staff

Two very different portraits of Jayson Williams emerged yesterday as the former Nets center sat in a Somerville courtroom for the start of his manslaughter trial.

The first depicted a drunken ex-National Basketball Association star showing off for friends with a loaded shotgun before he carelessly snapped it shut, fired and killed a hired limousine driver, then tried frantically to cover up the death with lies and fabricated evidence.

The second described a "teddy bear" who has malice toward no one -- the sober, hardworking son of a construction contractor who killed a stranger when a shotgun he was holding accidentally misfired, then panicked in the aftermath.

In eight weeks, a jury may convict the first one, possibly sending him to jail for 30 years, or send the second one home to be with his family at their Alexandria Township estate in Hunterdon County.

Or the jury may end up somewhere in between.

"At end of this case you will know as much as you know now: not much," Billy Martin, one of Williams' lawyers, said yesterday during his opening statement to the jury at the Somerset County Courthouse. "You'll be guessing."

In the early morning hours of Feb. 14, 2002, "this young man saw his whole life unravel in a tragic accident," Martin said.

The victim, Costas "Gus" Christofi, 55, of Washington in Warren County, cannot be brought back, Martin said, but that does not change the facts of the case.

"This young man is not guilty of a crime," he said.

On the contrary, First Assistant Hunterdon County Prosecutor Steven Lember said, Williams was at the center of everything that went wrong that night. He taunted Christofi throughout the evening -- in the restaurant while Williams and a group of people ate dinner, and later at Williams' home, when he allegedly lifted up Christofi and pretended to body slam him.

Lember described how Christofi jumped at the chance to drive several members of the Harlem Globetrotters, who had been invited out to dinner and then to Williams' estate after a basketball game at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pa. Christofi wanted the job, Lember said, because he was such a huge sports fan.

"Gus' luck, as you're going to hear from the evidence, was going to run out," he said. "Within a matter of minutes after Gus entered the home, Gus would be lying dead on the floor of the defendant's bedroom -- a shotgun blast to his chest. The individual who shot Gus, who recklessly shot Gus, is ... Jayson Williams."

It was after the shooting, as Christofi lay dying, that Williams initiated a plan to cover up the shooting, Lember said.

"This defendant took the hand of a dying man and attempted to transfer that dying man's fingerprints to the shotgun," Lember said.

Martin told the jurors there was panic in the aftermath of the shooting.

"After the gun went off, Mr. Williams did a lot of things," he said. "Chaos, panic and pandemonium ... everybody was doing some strange things. Mr. Williams panicked. He looked at (his friend, Kent) Culuko, he dove on the ground, trying to comfort Mr. Christofi, saying, 'Are you okay?' The sympathy, the remorse.

"It was Kent Culuko who said, hey, maybe it was a suicide," Martin said.

Culuko has pleaded guilty to witness and evidence tampering and has agreed to testify against Williams.

Martin said it was Culuko who organized the trip to the Globetrotters game and then invited Williams and members of his family to come along.

When plans for a post-game dinner in Bethlehem fell apart and the Globetrotters' bus broke down on the way back to their hotel, it was Williams who came to the rescue, Martin said.

Williams, his father and several others went on to the Mountain View Chalet Restaurant in Hunterdon County to await the four Globetrotters players who were to arrive in the limousine with Christofi, he said.

"Far from the 'party' the prosecution is trying to tell you was going on, it was a family night out for the Williams family," Martin said. "There was no drinking, no partying."

The prosecution and defense presented sharply different versions of what happened after the group arrived back at Williams' estate about 2:30 a.m.

Lember said Williams gave the group a tour of his home and that all of them eventually made their way into Williams' bedroom. Once there, Williams took a loaded shotgun from a gun case, he said.

"The bottom barrel is loaded," Lember said. "The defendant then turns toward Gus, who is only a few feet away from him, is heard to curse at Gus, and Gus, according to witness accounts, rolls his eyes. The defendant then with his right hand flips up the shotgun so that the barrel ... locks into place with his finger around the trigger and the shotgun discharges. Gus is hit in his upper right chest. He crumbles to the ground and within a matter of minutes is dead."

Martin, however, said the defense will prove that Williams could not have had his finger on the trigger. He said the gun cannot close if the trigger is held. He said Williams did swing the gun to close it "as they do on a skeet range," and when it snapped shut, it fired.

"That very moment as he closes it, Mr. Christofi comes back into the bedroom as he snaps it," Martin said. "He's moving and the gun is closing.

"Why do we submit to you it was an accident? Not just because Jayson didn't see him. Not just because Jayson didn't know the gun would discharge. We will bring you scientific evidence from experts who will say to you that that gun from Browning in the past has a history of accidentally discharging, and Browning has paid money because it has discharged," Martin said. "There was grime and gook and all type of debris in that gun that we believe at that moment caused the gun to go off."

Martin said Williams, 35, has been waiting two years to "tell his side of the story." He said he is not one of the NBA's bad boys and is incapable of the kind of mean-spirited behavior attributed to him by the prosecution.

"Jayson Williams is known in the NBA, in the community and in his family as a teddy bear," Martin said. "He's somebody who wants to hug you, who gives love to people. He's not one of the bad guys of the NBA."

But Lember said it was Williams alone who is criminally responsible for Christofi's death.

"How could it come to this? What should have been ... a pleasant evening of entertainment -- how did it become, how did it turn into a night of death and deceit? You will know the answer. The answer will point right back to the defendant. He is the reason it turned into a night of death and deceit."

Matthew Reilly works in the Hunterdon County bureau. He can be reached at mreilly@starledger.com or (908) 782-8326.

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Wednesday, February 11, 2004

BY GEORGE E. JORDAN AND MATTHEW FUTTERMAN
Star-Ledger Staff

Christie Whitman was lucky enough to leave the governor's office before getting burned by the Newark arena game.

Her successor, acting Gov. Donald DiFrancesco, promised to deliver an arena but was thwarted by legislators from both parties.

After another plan by Gov. James E. McGreevey fell victim to the state's budget crisis and political infighting, he was able to push the contentious issue to the back-burner.

But Newark's announcement Monday night that the Devils had signed a letter of intent to move to a $300 million arena downtown -- perhaps the most decisive act in a six-year saga -- sets up an intense game of chicken between the governor and Mayor Sharpe James, political experts said.

"This presents a real problem for the governor," former Sports Authority chairman and Newark arena opponent Raymond Bateman said yesterday.

How it works out could help determine everything from McGreevey's fate in next year's election to the future of professional sports in New Jersey.

The Devils, of course, already have a home -- the Continental Airlines Arena in the Meadowlands. Experts, though, say two 18,000-seat arenas cannot coexist 12 miles from each other. There just aren't enough game dates, concerts and other entertainment events to go around. One, or both, arenas will suffer.

But this is more than a fight over who gets to host the circus, political observers said. It may very well be a defining moment for McGreevey.

In deciding whether to keep the Meadowlands arena open, McGreevey is essentially choosing between Bergen and Essex counties -- two populous regions that provided nearly a quarter of his 1.2 million votes in 2001.

If he sides with Bergen County, he risks alienating Newark Mayor Sharpe James, the state's most prominent African-American elected official and the leader of a powerful Essex County election machine.

On the other hand, Bergen is full of swing voters McGreevey must court in 2005, said Patrick Murray, associate director of The Star-Ledger/Eagleton-Rutgers Poll.

"Ten to 15 years ago, Bergen County might have been a county that was written off by Democratic candidates," Murray said. "Not anymore. This is a county that Democrats who want to retain power in Trenton have to pay attention to."

McGreevey has straddled a political line when it comes to the arena question.

During his tenure, he has been both a vocal supporter of a Newark arena and more recently was adamant about keeping the Continental Airlines Arena open.

"America is about competition and we are perfectly willing to compete," said George Zoffinger, the governor's spokesman on sports matters and chief executive of the sports authority, which owns the Meadowlands arena. "Nobody should tell us we should close."

Complicating matters for McGreevey: Without a new arena in Newark, the Devils could become the second New Jersey team this year to announce their departure from the state. New York developer Bruce Ratner, who signed a contract to purchase the Nets last month, plans to move the team to a new arena in downtown Brooklyn in 2007.

Officials in Essex County, meanwhile, tried to capitalize on the momentum from Monday night's announcement. Newark officials promised to unveil the specifics of the deal at a news conference tomorrow.

"The arena, where it is now, is in nowhere land," Essex County Executive Joseph DiVincenzo said of the Meadowlands site. "If you don't drive, you can't get here. To me, it's no comparison."

Central Ward Councilman Charlie Bell said the Devils owners want an arena that will help revive the state's largest city.

"I'm trying to look at the big picture and the big picture is about developing Newark," Bell said.

Under the current deal, Newark would spend $200 million from its airport lease with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. The Devils would pay the remaining costs.

Besides the arena near Broad and Market streets, the plan calls for office buildings, a 300-room hotel, a 3,500-space parking garage, along with offices for the city and the board of education.

Through a spokesman, Devils owners Michael Gilfillan and Jeffrey Vanderbeek declined comment. Neither the team nor the city have released the financial details of the agreement. People familiar with the deal said the Devils would keep nearly every dollar spent on hot dogs, T-shirts and luxury boxes.

The deal angered Bret Schundler, the Republican who ran against McGreevey in the last election.

"It's not just an insult to the state's taxpayers but also in Newark," Schundler said. "It's money that should be used for education and policing."

Bergen officials also criticized the deal.

State Sen. Paul Sarlo, a Democrat whose district includes the Meadowlands, said he was working with both Republicans and Democrats to stop the Newark project.

"The governor knows where we stand," Sarlo said. "We support redevelopment efforts in Newark, but don't take from Peter to pay Paul."

Sen. Joseph M. Kyrillos Jr. (R-Monmouth), the state Republican chairman, said the Devils moving to Newark is far better than the team moving out of state.

"We've lost the Nets," he said. "We don't want to lose the Devils. I support an arena in Newark in principle.

"It's hard to be a great state without a great prospering city. We need to contribute to Newark's success. The devil is in the details, in the financing. I've been through enough arena history to know there's a lot more of this movie to come."

George E. Jordan and Matthew Futterman can be reached at (973) 392-4141.