Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Jayson Williams Tased
Former NBA All-Star Jayson Williams got tased by the cops 4 am Monday morning in a lower Manhattan hotel room after his female companion called 911 saying Jay was acting suicidal. When the police arrived they found prescription drug bottles and several suicide notes strewn around and said that Jay clearly impaired. He got tased after resisting officers trying to take him to the hospital. Jayson is awaiting sentencing after being convicted of trying to cover-up the 2004 shooting death of limo driver Costas Christofsi . According to testimony, Jayson was showing a group of people around his NJ estate. When they got to the master bedroom Jay pulled out a rifle that when slammed shut, went off, blasting 55 year old Chritofsi in the chest. According to witnesses, Jayson then placed the gun in the dead man's hands, stripped off all his clothes and jumped into his swimming pool. Jayson's defense was that he panicked. He was acquitted of aggravated manslaughter, but the jury deadlocked on a reckless-manslaughter count. A retrial is pending, and he has been free on bail since the shooting. He's apologized to Christofi's relatives and given them $2.5 million to settle a civil suit. He could be sentenced to several years in prison on the cover-up conviction, but a judge ruled he wouldn't be sentenced until after the retrial. He is also being divorced by his wife.