Iver Peterson of the New York Times reports that former New Jersey Net Jayson Williams pleaded not guilty to aggravated manslaughter and eight other counts in the fatal shooting of a limousine driver at Mr. Williams's estate in February.

Williams was initially charged with manslaughter, which holds a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison. A grand jury raised the charge to aggravated manslaughter which means the prosecuters will have to prove that not only was responsible for the death by acting reckless, but that he had also shown extreme indifference to human life.  The more serious charge carries a 30-year maximum sentence.

The prosecutor says Mr. Williams shot and killed the driver, Costas Christofi, 55, while showing him and a group of friends around his 65-acre estate in Alexandria Township, Hunterdon County. Witnesses told the police that Mr. Williams had been brandishing a shotgun in a reckless way when it went off, the shot hitting Mr. Christofi in the chest. Mr. Christofi died quickly from loss of blood, the medical examiner reported.

The police say Mr. Williams then contrived to make the death look like a suicide, and that they have a witness who will testify that Mr. Williams coached his guests on what they should tell the police while a friend, John Gordnick, wiped Mr. Williams's fingerprints from the gun and later buried his blood-splattered clothes off a highway. Mr. Gordnick pleaded not guilty today to several evidence-tampering charges.

Judge Edward M. Coleman then gave prosecutors until September to complete DNA testing for blood that splattered on Mr. Williams's clothes, and for other investigative steps that still needed to be done.

The state's star witness against him will probably be one of his guests on the night of Feb. 14, Kent Culuko, who entered a plea deal in which he agreed to testify against Mr. Williams and Mr. Gordnick.