Jayson Williams - Dog Killer



Former Nets/St. Johns star Jayson Williams is facing a manslaughter charge in the shooting death of limo driver Costas Christofsi (no relation to Krusty The Clown) at his New Jersey mansion in 2002. Since Williams was always such a funny guy, there's been a tendency on the part of some (present company included) to try and find some sympathy for him. Until now, that is.



From Newsday's Jeffrey Gold :

Jayson Williams won key pretrial rulings in his manslaughter case as a state judge refused to allow prosecutors to introduce evidence that the retired NBA star killed his dog with a shotgun and then ordered a witness at gunpoint to bury the animal.

Assistant Hunterdon County Prosecutor Katharine L. Errickson said the shooting of Zeus, a Rottweiler, took place on Aug. 8 or 9, 2001, between 2 a.m. and 3 a.m., according to a sworn statement from Dwayne Schintzius, a former NBA player who was living at Williams' mansion and working out with him in the hope of making a comeback.

The incident happened after Williams, Schintzius and another friend, Chris Duckery, returned from drinking at the Mountain View Chalet, she said. That is the same restaurant Williams and friends had been at before the Christofi shooting.

Schintzius, in a sworn interview, bet Williams $100 that he could drag Zeus out of the house. After Williams accepted, Schintzius pulled the dog outside by his hind legs, the prosecutor said.

Williams went upstairs and returned with a shotgun. "He blasts one round into the side of the dog, and another into his head, in Schintzius' words, almost decapitating him," Errickson told the judge.

Williams then loaded two more rounds into the shotgun, pointed it at Schintzius, and said, "Shinbone, get this (expletive) dog off my porch, or you're next," the prosecutor said. Schintzius and Duckery complied, and buried the dog, she said.

A statement issued Wednesday by Williams' father, E.J. Williams, called Schintzius "unstable" and his story "a blatant lie."

The 7-foot-4 Schintzius ended his NBA career in 2000 and played minor league professional basketball last season with the Brevard (Fla.) Blue Ducks of the United States Basketball League.



(Schintzius, telling close friend Whoopi Goldberg exactly what happened).


Posted: Wed - February 4, 2004 at 09:02 PM      

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