updated 5:13 p.m. ET May 1, 2004

TRENTON, N.J. - Legal experts are hailing Jayson Williams’ lawyers for their brilliant defense of the former NBA star, acquitted of killing a limousine driver at his mansion.

Williams was exonerated on the most serious count, aggravated manslaughter, but was convicted on four of six lesser charges related to the death of Costas “Gus” Christofi. Williams could be retried on a charge of reckless manslaughter, which the jury was divided on.

Williams’ attorneys were able to win the acquittal by bogging down prosecutors with testimony from weapons experts that diverted the jury’s attention from the shooting, the observers said after the verdicts were announced Friday.

Defense attorney David M. Schwartz said prosecutors did a “thorough job” but were forced into playing the defense’s game — allowing weapons experts and the allegations of a misfiring shotgun to blur what should have been the main thrust of the state’s case: the killing itself.

“I think sometimes prosecutors, especially in these cases, have a tendency to overcomplicate the case and I think that’s where the gun expert testimony came in,” Schwartz said. “Just the fact that he pointed a loaded gun while being drunk at another human being, that alone was recklessness.”

John J. Fahy, a former prosecutor who now does defense work, said prosecutors made a big mistake by withholding notes and photographs of a weapons expert from the defense. The disclosure of the evidence late in the trial allowed the defense to reopen its case after a three-week delay.

Fahy said it did not matter whether the jury understood the legal issue but said the delay made the difference.

“All they’ve been hearing about is gun stuff, gun stuff, gun stuff, so when they got into the jury room all they were thinking is gun stuff, gun stuff, gun stuff,” Fahy said.

“For five weeks all they’ve been focusing on is the gun. They kept their focus on that and that’s why there was no conviction as to the shooting.”

Williams’ lawyers have preserved several issues they could raise on appeal.

One of the most relevant points deals with a charge of fabricating physical evidence. The jury found Williams guilty of providing clothes not worn during the shooting. That might be grounds for appeal because the defense has argued that Williams turned over the clothes after the police requested them.

A detective testified he asked Williams for his clothes so Williams turned them over. The clothes, however, were ones Williams had changed into after the shooting.

The defense said it was not up to Williams to read the mind of the officer. He had given the bloody clothes to a friend.

Other appeal possibilities deal with charges of improper conduct by the prosecutor before two grand juries that returned indictments against Williams, allegations that were rejected by the trial judge.

The defense also accused the prosecution of improperly excluding black men from the 16 jurors who were empaneled, but the judge found no wrongdoing.

The defense also sought a dismissal of all charges in April, accusing the prosecutor of misconduct in connection with the withheld notes and photographs. The prosecutor admitted that he failed to give some material to the defense before the trial started. He turned it over after the defense rested, but said the error was inadvertent.

The defense maintained it was part of a pattern of egregious behavior that deprived Williams of a fair trial, but the judge said it was unintentional and could be corrected by allowing the defense to reopen its case.

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