JAYSON WILLIAMS COPS A PLEA! WILL DO 18 MONTHS FOR SHOOTING THE LIMO DRIVER!

Former NBA star Jayson Williams pleaded guilty Monday to fatally shooting his limo driver with a shotgun.
Williams' plea closes the book on a case that took eight years to resolve and brought only a measure of justice that the family of Costas (Gus) Christofi had been seeking.

The former New Jersey Nets star faces 18 months in jail in return for pleading guilty to aggravated assault in connection with the 2002 shooting. Williams, 41, was facing retrial for a more serious charge - reckless manslaughter - for accidentally killing the 55-year-old driver at his mansion.

There was no immediate reaction from Christofi's family. In November, the driver's disgusted sister told the Daily News that the plea deal then being considered - three years in prison - was an insult to her dead brother.

"He should be doing a lot more than that," Andrea Adams said at the time. "He's been out free for seven years.

Right now, I'm sort of numb. I mean, it hurts." Williams was acquitted in 2004 on aggravated manslaughter and convicted of cover-up charges.

The jury deadlocked on reckless manslaughter.

Christofi had been hired by Williams to drive his guests back to New Jersey after a Harlem Globetrotters game. Witnesses said Williams had been drinking and was showing off a shotgun.

They said it discharged when he snapped it shut, blasting the driver in the chest. Investigators said Williams then placed the gun in Christofi's hands and asked everybody in the room to lie about what happened.

Williams insisted the shooting was an accident and in 2003 he shelled out $2.75 million to settle a wrongful civil death suit. Since then, Williams has been haunted by the tragedy while his own life has spiralled out of control.

The former St. John's University star is getting divorced and claims to be broke despite making $87 million with the Nets. Williams was hospitalized in April after he grew violent in a Battery Park City hotel room.

Cops found suicide notes and empty pill bottles scattered throughout the room - and had to use stun guns to subdue him.

Earlier this month, Williams broke a small bone in his neck but avoided paralysis when he smashed his SUV into a tree after veering off an exit ramp of the FDR Drive at East 20th Street.

Witnesses said Williams had been drinking and whooping it up at an upper East Side bar before the wreck. And before the cops arrived, Williams scooted over into the passenger seat - as if to make it seem he wasn't the driver.

He was charged with DWI.