A legal battle that has gone on for almost 8 years is finally coming to a close for the former NBA star Jayson Williams, who played for Philadelphia and New Jersey at different times in his career.
It all started when, back in February 2002, his chauffeur was shot and 
killed in his home. The gun was found in the hands of the chauffeur, but witnesses pretty quickly owned up to the fact that Williams, who had a history of recklessness with guns, had in fact killed him, then put the gun in his hands so that it would look like he shot himself. He then asked the witnesses to lie for him. Of course, it being his gun, since it was registered, no one would have believed the chauffeur would have known where he kept his guns, or why he’d shoot himself with so many other people present.
Once the initial story broke down, he claimed that the man was shot by accident. This part of the story was believable, but still people wondered how he could have accidentally shot this man. Then the stories started coming out on how he would always be pulling guns out from seemingly nowhere and pointing them at people. Former basketball teammates talked about being out in the woods with him and having him point his gun at them sometimes, once actually putting a pistol to the head of a former teammate and saying he’d blow his head off then and there. He, of course, would deny these things ever happened, but with so many witness accounts, his story wasn’t holding up well.
So, when he was acquitted of aggravated murder charges in 2004, prosecutors were stunned. He was found guilty of trying to cover up the killing, but he never got any jail time behind that. However, that acquittal didn’t stop prosecutors from continuing to try to build some kind of case against Williams, as the feeling was this man needed to get some jail time for killing someone.
Now it looks like jail time is coming. Williams claims he’s broke after earning more than $87 million in his basketball career, his wife is divorcing him, and his father recently passed away. He’s agreed to plead guilty to aggravated assault, which could put him in jail for up to 3 years. Of course, there’s no guarantee that he’ll serve any jail time at all after this long, but finally owning up to his actions and doing the responsible thing will close the chapter on this fiasco of a man who had a great life ahead of him go terribly wrong by making some very bad choices and actions.
