Fresh out of prison, Jayson Williams is in the healing business

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

You will reserve the right to be cynical, and you can submit to the impulse to avert your eyes and ears. That’s the default reaction to anyone who claims to have found piety in a six-by-eight prison cell after turning a privileged life into a human catastrophe.

AP Photo/Kathy Johnson
Jayson Williams was handcuffed and led away Tuesday after a judge approved his sentence of at least 18 months in prison.

Really, your skepticism is understandable — have at it. Just imagine yourself in a prison for 26 months, and see if the last spark of divinity isn’t extinguished forever.

But you’re still left with one question after you get out: What now?

Maybe that’s the difference between Jayson Williams and the rest of us. For 20 minutes yesterday, not once did he try to sell us on the notion that his new spirituality should somehow bestow a state of grace. He has little to gain from that anymore — except perhaps a small bit of attention to charities he’s become passionate about, but he is out of the self-promotion business.

Since his release in April, his days have been filled with AA meetings, Bible studies (he calls Curtis Martin a spiritual adviser), and regular visits to St. Lucy’s shelter and the Franciska Residence, two housing facilities for HIV/AIDS patients in Jersey City.

In other words, he’s in the healing business, though he’s reluctant to give himself that much credit.

“About 95 percent of the time I wake up and want to save the world,” says the former Nets center. “I might only save my community in the end. But I can see myself helping people, running a shelter, doing what I’m doing right now — being the best Christian that I can be, and try to help as many people as I can.

“God has been good to me. I have my health. I have my family. The best thing is getting up in the morning and submitting myself to whatever He has planned for me today. I’m excited about my life right now.”

He looks gaunt in a loose gray suit (“I’m 245 — my playing weight”), but he is still imposing at age 44. He is 893 days sober, and is finally over his gun fetish, partly because owning so much as a slingshot will get him seven years.

We are sitting at the Upper Montclair Country Club, where he was an honored guest for a fund-raiser for Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Newark.

How’d he get here? Mere happenstance: Charities CEO Phillip Frese said Williams just showed up at the St. Lucy’s one morning a few months back. They hit it off, and Williams keeps returning like a welcome sunrise.

“He’s a godsend,” says Frese, the former dean of the Business School at Quinnipiac. “He gives talks, he feeds them, he has built a rapport with clients and staff, he prepares breakfast for them. Last week, he took all the men for haircuts and all the women to the hairdresser. And he does this with other organizations as well.”

We asked Frese if he ever feared risking the charity’s prestige on a felon. It induced a laugh. “Our clients have had similar or worse situations in their lives,” he says. “And now they have someone to show them there’s a step to take, and offer them a hand up.”

Williams clearly gets enormous gratification from his visits, but here’s the challenge: “You can always fill someone’s stomach,” he says, “but it’s difficult to fill someone with self-esteem and dignity. So that’s how I can relate. I’ve been in their shoes. I’ve been through the judicial system. And I’ve known AIDS since 1981.”

So many of us have forgotten that, or ignored what it does to a kid’s emotional development. But this guy’s private life was always public property, in the form of an NBA trilogy that seemed like a Scorsese production.

The opening act brought us a poor, biracial kid from the projects on the Lower East Side who demonstrated uncommon strength at 18 by adopting his sisters’ kids after both Linda (in 1983) and Laura (1988) died of AIDS. Then he became the local hero at St. John’s, an NBA All-Star with $100 million, and a TV star who not only did good, he did 50 lifetimes of good.

The next chapter involved too much alcohol, a shotgun blast that ended the life of limousine driver Gus Christofi, and prison terms in New Jersey and New York.

Now he has to fill the last half-century of his life, and he has the gifts to do something good with those 50 years.

Yes, you’ll probably dismiss his God-speak or do-gooding or Bible-thumping as the last refuge of a scoundrel — help yourself. But let’s remember two things: There was always a lot of good in Jayson Williams; and the crime for which he will always be remembered was not the result of some malicious intent. It was the result of a horrific mistake that he thinks about hourly. He still calls it “My accident.”

For some indiscernible reason — and a really good lawyer — the game of life has found him on a safe square. He is still materially sound. He can easily retreat and limit himself to his personal concerns, which is allowed in this country.

But it’s worth noting that he chooses to pause, lean down and give others a hand.

And we’re here to tell you today that he’s doing the best he can.

“I’d like to say that I don’t care what people think, but that would be a lie,” Williams says. “But there’s no motivation other than the gratification I feel instantly in my heart. That’s always been there.

“This gives me a sense of purpose. I’d love for people to believe me, but hey, it takes time. Maybe it never happens.”

http://www.nj.com/nets/index.ssf/2012/06/post_12.html

Williams to serve at least 18 months

SOMERVILLE, N.J. -- Former NBA star Jayson Williams was sentenced to five years in prison Tuesday for fatally shooting a hired limo driver in 2002, ending an eight-year legal odyssey by tearfully apologizing to the victim's family. He will be eligible for parole in 18 months.

Williams, avoiding a retrial on a reckless manslaughter count that deadlocked the jury at his 2004 trial, pleaded guilty last month to aggravated assault in the death of Costas Christofi on Feb. 14, 2002. At the same 2004 trial, he was acquitted of aggravated manslaughter but convicted on four counts of covering up the shooting.

The sentences on the assault and cover-up counts will run concurrently. State Superior Court Judge Edward Coleman went along with a plea agreement that spelled out the five-year prison sentence and the potential for Williams to be released as early as summer 2011.

In court Tuesday, a tearful Williams turned and apologized to Andrea Adams, Christofi's sister, saying, "There's not a day I wake up that I don't feel sorry for what I did to Mr. Christofi and that I put you through this."

Adams wrote in a letter read by a court employee that the punishment "didn't fit the crime" and spoke of "eight years of agony watching Jayson Williams prance around and live his life and acting like nothing happened."

Williams paid Christofi's family more than $2 million in 2003 to settle a wrongful death lawsuit.

Williams had been free on bail since being charged in 2002, but was taken from the courtroom in handcuffs to begin serving his sentence.

On the night of the shooting, the 55-year-old Christofi had driven Williams and several of the basketball player's friends to Williams' mansion after taking them to a local restaurant.

Williams said at his plea hearing last month that he gave the group a tour of the house and showed them his gun collection in his bedroom. While showing off a double-barreled 12-gauge shotgun, Williams admitted, he failed to check the safety mechanism and inspected only one of the two barrels before snapping it shut.

The gun fired, striking Christofi once in the chest and killing him. Witnesses testified that Williams tried to cover up his involvement by initially placing the gun in Christofi's hands and instructing those present in the bedroom to lie about what happened.

"Had the defendant exercised one ounce of caution that night, Gus Christofi would still be alive and we wouldn't be here," Deputy Attorney General Steven Farman said Tuesday.

The legal wrangling in the case eventually took on a life of its own, beginning with a change of venue for the trial from Hunterdon County, the site of the shooting, to Somerset County.

In 2007, defense attorneys tried to get the case tossed out after Hunterdon County Prosecutor J. Patrick Barnes divulged that a white investigator in his office had used a racial slur to describe Williams, who is black, in a 2002 meeting. The dispute reached the state Supreme Court, but Coleman refused to throw out the 2004 convictions or the retrial.

Williams, who turned 42 on Monday, played nine seasons with the Philadelphia 76ers and New Jersey Nets before a leg injury forced him to retire in 2000. He was in the second year of a six-year, $86 million contract.

Known for his gregarious personality, Williams became an NBA analyst for NBC but was suspended after Christofi's shooting. He attempted a short-lived comeback in the minor league Continental Basketball Association in 2005.

Williams has suffered several recent personal setbacks.

His wife filed for divorce last year, but has attended his recent court appearances and was in court Tuesday.

Police used a stun gun on him in a New York hotel last year after a female friend said he was acting suicidal. He was charged with assault in May after allegedly punching a man in the face outside a North Carolina bar, but charges were dropped. His father, E.J., with whom he owned a construction business, died in South Carolina in November.

Last month he was charged with drunken driving after he crashed his SUV in Manhattan. Prosecutors said his blood alcohol level was more than twice the legal limit.

"To my family, please forgive me for the pain I've caused you," Williams said Tuesday as he read from a statement. "You deserve a better father, a better brother and son than I have been. I am not a bad man, but I acted badly on Feb. 14. I will work endlessly to improve myself and make positive contributions to society."

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=4938372

During the hearing, Christofi's sister held up a photo of him, while a rep for the family stood up and said Jayson had never apologized to the family for killing Christofi. The rep begged the judge to make Jayson serve all five years in prison without probation.

Jayson eventually stood up, teary-eyed, and apologized to them ... along with his own family, church and the NBA.

Jayson was eventually handcuffed and taken out of the courtroom. We're told he'll be taken to the Hunterdon County Correctional Facility ... where he could remain for weeks until he's moved to his permanent lodging.

We were live inside Somerset County Courthouse in New Jersey during Jayson's sentencing this morning, below are the highlights from the hearing ... video to follow.

UPDATE 9:35 AM ET: It has begun. The prosecutor just asked the judge to sentence Jayson to 5 years behind bars with a minimum of 18 months with parole. The prosecutor told the judge Jayson has a "dark side."

UPDATE 9:44 AM ET: The prosecutor asked the judge to take in consideration Jayson was convicted in 2004 of 4 "cover up" charges related to the shooting.

UPDATE 10:11 AM ET: Christofi's sister just held up a photo of her brother, while a rep for the family stood up and said Jayson has never shown remorse over the shooting, and has never apologized to her family. The rep said Jayson should have to serve all five years without parole.

UPDATE 10:25 AM ET: Jayson's lawyer is up now. He's explaining about how hard Jayson's life has been ... including the deaths of his sisters from AIDS. He's also talking about Jayson's charity work and donations.

UPDATE 11:00 AM ET: Jayson just stood up and apologized to Christofi's family. He said he knows there's nothing he can do to bring him back. Jayson teared up, and apologized to his family, his church and the NBA.

UPDATE 11:03 AM ET: The judge is addressing Jayson directly. He thanks him for the apologies ... but said Jayson will pay the price for his actions.

UPDATE 11:15 AM ET: The judge just sentenced Jayson to 5 years in prison, with parole available after 18 months. Jayson has 45 days to appeal. Jayson was just taken out of the courtroom in handcuffs.

http://www.tmz.com/2010/02/23/jayson-williams-sentencing-shooting-nba/#ixzz2KE0nzv6B