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Seven Charges Against Jayson Williams

Aired May 01, 2002 - 11:01   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: First up this hour, the case against former NBA star Jayson Williams. Let's bring in our Deborah Feyerick live from New York.

Deborah, what details to you have on this indictment?

DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Daryn, there are seven charges against Jayson Williams. They include aggravated manslaughter, wreckless manslaughter, as well as evidence and witness tampering. Three other charges against a friend who is in the house, who apparently helped Jayson Williams cover up the shooting death of Christofi.

Now this indictment came quickly. We spoke to the prosecutor on Friday, and he said his case ready to go to grand jury. He was just waiting to schedule a date. So the grand jury has decided within the last two days to hand the charges up against Jayson Williams.

There's going to be 2:00 presser today. At that time, the prosecutor likely to formally announce the charges against Jayson Williams. When we spoke to Williams' spokesperson on Friday, she said that Williams planned to plead innocent or plead not guilty to the charges once they happen. And we are going to find out when exactly Jayson Williams is expected to be in court next -- Daryn.

KAGAN: Deborah, this is just the next step in the justice system working its way through. I guess what's kind of interesting is how quickly it happened.

FEYERICK: Exactly, because they didn't have a date for -- to present this to the grand jury, at least they didn't as of Friday. And so it means that either they presented all the evidence on Monday or Tuesday for this indictment to happen today. Now one critical thing that happened last week was that one of Williams' friends pleaded guilty to helping Williams tamper with evidence. That is they tried to make it look like a suicide, and according to the friend, Jayson Williams was the one who told the people in the house that night that they should try to alter the gun that was near the limo driver's body, and try to put his handprint on it, as opposed to anyone else's.

So this was something -- this was evidence clearly that was also presented to the grand jury. And that may be why this happened just as quickly as it did. KAGAN: Deborah Feyerick in New York. Deborah, thank you very much.

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