All the way back in April 2004, Williams was originally acquitted of aggravated manslaughter, assault and other weapons charges after he accidentally killed his limo driver with a shotgun during a party in his home. However, he was convicted on four charges related to his attempts to cover up the shooting and the jury deadlocked on a lesser charger of reckless manslaughter. His sentencing on the cover-up was postponed until there could be a retrial on the reckless manslaughter case, but due to various procedural maneuvers, that trial never happened. He's basically been out on bail for five years.

The retrial was finally slated to resume next January, but sources says that Williams will go to court tomorrow and plead guilty to aggravated assault, ending all the legal challenges. (He settled a civil suit in 2003.) He will face up to three years in prison, but will get a minimum of 18 months because the crime involved a gun. Plus, he could have faced as many 13 years for the charges from the original trial, but those have likely been negotiated down with the plea bargain.

So basically, it's been nearly eight years, but Williams may finally now be punished for trying to impress his idiot friends with a loaded shotgun. If you don't count his failed life, total destruction of his reputation, and possible loss of sanity as punishment. (That's a start, but after all, he did kill a guy.)

Jayson Williams is expected to serve 18 months in prison for 2002 death [Newark Star-Ledger]
Jayson Williams taking deal in shooting [AP]
Jayson Williams to take plea deal in shooting case [ESPN]

This took place on Halloween, but it's funnier if you pretend it didn't. Two men dressed as a beloved video game character and his much-less-beloved brother assaulted a cab driver on Staten Island not with the red shell, but with their fists.

Investigators are on the lookout for the two and their suspected accomplice, a bipedal mushroom. If you're wondering how they've eluded capture this long, it's suspected they possess the Tanooki suit, and have been mistaken for statues by police.

Costumed duo rob SI cabby [NY Post]

Scott has filed a federal lawsuit against the prosecutors, his accuser and the university, saying that their overzealous pursuit of the case and the team's decision to drop him cost him a legitimate shot at a pro career. He missed half his senior season and the charges were dropped one day before the 2008 NFL draft. Obviously, he wasn't picked.

His lawyer also accused the prosecutors of misconduct, comparing the case to a "lynch mob." (The accuser was white, Scott is black.) Scott was the second Nittany Lion player in two years to be accused of rape only to have the case dropped, and the assistant district attorney who worked on both cases resigned last December "amid allegations he made inappropriate sexual advances toward a victim of domestic violence." Scott's case was dropped after the judge agreed to allow testimony revealing that his accuser had made a similar allegation against another man four years earlier. That man was acquitted.

Unfortunately, Scott's own attorney is on trial for money laundering and mail fraud charges, so the whole "that other lawyer is a crook!" meme doesn't work as well.

Despite all that, it seems Scott's case would be strongest against the university. While any court case would have certainly harmed his draft status, by not waiting until the case was resolved before kicking him off the team, Scott had no chance to showcase—or more importantly, develop—his football skills. (Even though his bio is still on the Lions' website.) He was signed as an unrestricted free agent by the Browns in 2008, but was cut during training camp.

Scott was a strong, but not phenomenal college player and plenty of guys have gotten second chances in NFL, even after being convicted of crimes. But would he be in the NFL now if he had never been accused? Does the school owe him anything? At least an apology?

Austin Scott files lawsuit against Penn State [Morning Call]
Austin Scott Case Coverage [Daily Collegian]
Player Bio: Austin Scott [Go PSU Sports]
Penn State OTR: Austin Scott Talks ... And Talks ... And Talks ... [College OTR, 2007]

Melanie Sinclair, a nine-time All-American and three-time All-SEC gymnast for the Gators, was busted yesterday after her boyfriend—21-year-old Bud Williams—told police that she knew the stuff was stolen. Williams himself was busted two weeks ago after cops got a tip that someone was selling guns out of the apartment complex and while they were staking it out, he was seen strolling across the complex with a loaded 12-gauge shotgun. He later told police that Sinclair not only knew about the loot, she was "playing" with the guns and he tried to give her a necklace that he found in the safe.

Oh, and if that wasn't damaging enough, police taped a jailhouse phone conversation (yes, they can do that) between the two where Williams instructed Sinclair to lie to the police. It sounds like he's not the best boyfriend in the world. Or the best criminal.

Sinclair, who has three perfect 10.0s on the uneven parallel bars in her career, has been suspended from the team indefinitely. (Gymnastics season begins in January.) It's too bad she missed her mandatory 15 minute appointment with the school quarterback, because her life would have been better for it.

Standout UF gymnast and her boyfriend arrested [Gainesville Sun]
UF gymnast arrested for storing stolen goods by [Orlando Sentinel]
Gator Gymnast Behind Bars [Video @ WCJB]

Sadly, this was the only Oriole artifact anywhere in the area that had any resale value. (As you can see in this pre-desecration picture, there has to be at least $4 worth of melted scrap there.) The good news is that the bandits were not hard to catch, because they were driving around town drawing noise complaints from residents—while the "statue" sat in the back of their pickup truck.

The four Dillingers were all underage and—surprise!—drunk as boiled owls. (Yes, that's a saying!) They were also caught on surveillance cameras ripping the sculpture out of its base. The citizenry is obviously horrified.

It is a theft both brazen and unimaginable in a city where residents revere Ripken, the Aberdeen native who won two Most Valuable Awards, was selected to 19 All-Star teams and obliterated Lou Gehrig's record by playing in 2,632 consecutive games. The Orioles put the statue up in October 2001, a month after Ripken retired.

"Every day, I hear things on the news and I think, 'Who in the world would do something like that,' and I have no idea," Ripken's mother, Vi, said in a telephone interview. "Maybe they thought, 'We'll get attention if we do this.' I wouldn't even venture a guess as to what motivates people."

It's like watching Johnny Unitas kill that hobo* all over again.

Ripken's No. 8 statue stolen [Baltimore Sun]

*May not have happened.

A police spokesman confirms that "it's a fact" that UFC bouts attract gangs and organized crime. Sure, a few non-criminal thugs might be interested too, but are you willing to gamble your daughter's virtue on that?

The difference, said Irwin Cohen, a criminologist at the University of the Fraser Valley, is the demographics for mixed martial arts fans overlaps considerably with young men involved in organized crime.

"You could make the argument ... in terms of a broader audience it may appeal to that classic 14- to 22-year-old male, aggressive, and some of that does fit into the organized crime or gang profile as well.

Great. We're all doomed. Thankfully, the city will not sanction bouts until the sport becomes "regulated" and Eliot Ness puts an end to its bootlegging ways. And can we do something about the rock-and-roll and mini-skirts, too, while we're at it?

Gangsters' love of UFC worries B.C. officials [Edmonton Sun]
MMA will bring undesirable gangsters to your city [Watch Kalib Run]

When there's not a SICKO in need of shaming, Peyser skulks around courthouses watching the trials of minor celebrities.

Today she is OUTRAGED that Antonio Pierce TWEETED after testifying before a grand jury. He didn't Tweet about the Plaxico Burress incident, but, you know. He TWEETED! Instead of confessing to all the various crimes that Andrew Peyser knows he is guilty of! The nerve of this guy!

MINUTES after he told a grand jury he did nothing in the Plaxico Burress mess, Giants linebacker and fellow twit Antonio Pierce couldn't wait to post this cocky tweet on Twitter:

"Which way to ALBANY? someone just told me."

Yes, right. Very cocky. And "arrogant." And "wacky" and "ornery." And: "This idiot athlete clearly thinks a lot of himself." Because he is Tweeting, about how he is excited to play football, and how he hopes to play it very well, this fall.

We hope Andrea Peyser stays on the sports beat, because we would love to read her thoughts on Mutton Bustin'.

Taylor Mattingly, an A-ball washout, admitted to Evansville police that he pushed his mother Kim to the ground, spat on her, then went all Hulk smash:

[He] admitted flipping a patio table over and shattering another, breaking a patio door and window and throwing furniture into the walls of the pool house, the affidavit said.

It's a he-said-she-said thing. Kim says her son was angry that she was trying to trade in his car, and had shut off cable service at his ranch. He says she had sent him a text message insulting him, his girlfriend, and his father...wait, she spoke ill of Donnie Baseball? I'd smack her around myself!

Perhaps wary of recent cover-ups, police were notably defensive over the lack of a mug shot.

He was booked into jail about 10:30 p.m. Officials there did not take a mug shot of him because the system was down, said Major Rick Pace, the jail commander. He said the camera was down much of the night and that multiple inmates did not have a photo taken.

Taylor Mattingly had been bonded out by the time the camera was fixed, Pace said.

That bodes well for Taylor: his mother didn't photograph too well in her mug shot (see above right).

Former Central Standout, Yankees Draft Pick Arrested [Evansville Courier & Press]

The autopsy conducted on Arturo Gatti doesn't rule out the possibility of suicide, which, for those of us sick of celebrity tragedies this summer, is unwelcome news. Now we'll get a slew of alternate theories, and a trial for his wife, and more gruesome details then we ever wanted to know.

The report finds that Gatti's body was "suspended and hanged, indicating he may have committed suicide." That doesn't explain much, especially how his wife could have been in a room with a hanging body for 10 hours and not noticed something amiss. So the autopsy also retains the possibilities of "murder or accidental death," the latter I can only assume referring to David Carradine.

So: suicide, or maybe murder, or maybe an accident? We only learn two things: that, yes, Gatti is conclusively dead, and that death by purse strap isn't considered natural causes, even in Brazil.

The results of my journalism post-mortem indicate that this story has legs.

Report: Gatti May Have Committed Suicide [AP]

We've pulled just a small teaser sample, but you should really go their website and see the whole thing. (Multimedia people!) It's rated NSFW for language and very brief partial nudity. If you need something more censored, there's some footage at ESPN.

The video shot by an unknown "guest" on February 19, 2007, shows Jones with his magical money backpack and GIANT stacks of one dollar bills. He makes it rain all right. About 50 strippers completely cover the dance floor, filling a bucket with the discarded singles. At one point, the music stops and producer Jermaine Dupri gets on the DJ mic to scold the dancers because they've stopped dancing in order to collect the loot. Then at the very end, the rapper Nelly appears, also playing rainmaker, realizes that he would prefer not be filmed and the cameraman stops rolling. It was shortly after this that the infamous brawl started.

So there you go. Real actual of footage of strip club rain. It does exist in nature.

Adam 'Pacman' Jones and the Minxx [Las Vegas Review Journal]
New video surfaces in Pacman case [ESPN]
Earlier: The "Pacman" Jones Strip Club Shooting Gets Its Warren Report [Deadspin]

It's been more than two years since the brawl and later shooting at the Minxx Strip Club during the NBA All-Star Weekend 2007. How time flies, right? The Review-Journal has done a through re-investigation (the Sun has a nice package on it too) of the whole matter and while parts two and three are not yet online, it's a fun trip down memory lane. While mostly a recap and clarification of all the conflicting reports, the story does have "interactive multimedia timelines" and they did add this charming picture of the famous "making it rain" incident that started the whole thing. (Was it really Pacman who popularized that lovely phrase or do I just wish it was?)

Some other highlights from the Iliad-like retelling:

Jones, dressed in a white jersey-style shirt and wearing a large gold chain supporting a medallion depicting the "Pacman" video game character, had walked into the club with about $100,000 in cash inside a Louis Vuitton backpack. He exchanged $40,000 of that with a club manager for singles. This was in preparation for the celebrities gathering on stage to toss money into the air and in the general direction of dancers — a practice in the nightclub world known as "making it rain."

OK, I'm going to stop you right there. $40,000 in singles? Try to imagine that for a second. Then remember that after throwing the money at strippers, Jones and Jermaine Dupri were annoyed that women actually tried to pick the cash up off the dance floor. So classless! That led to the brawl (Jones allegedly punched a dancer) and we move on....

[Aaron] Cudworth, a 265-pound bouncer, muscled his way through the crowd toward Jones, only to find himself face to face with Jones' bodyguard, Reid, who weighed 400 pounds.

Club manager George Petraski later told police: "The bodyguard, I don't know what the hell he was doing. He was holding Pacman like somebody was trying to assassinate him."

As Cudworth wrestled with Reid, Jones bit him in the ankle. A woman in Zab Judah's group then smashed a glass bottle over Cudworth's head.

In his fury, Cudworth started calling Jones a racial epithet, according to Jones and others who were with him.

"Once we got outside, he started running his mouth and saying, 'I'm going to shoot you. I'm going to shoot you,'" Cudworth told police. "He kept putting his hands in his pants pocket or up front down by his pants. ... I could distinctly say Pacman was the one who threatened to kill me."

So you're saying things got out of hand after the racial slurs? Odd. However, the trial of the alleged shooter, Arvin Kenti Edwards, was set to begin this week—hence the refresher course; I'm sure there will be more about him in parts two and three—but has been delayed until next year. In addition to three counts of attempted murder, Edwards is accused of trying to extort Jones to keep quiet about the shooting after the fact. Of course, that does not explain what allegedly transpired between the two men just before the shooting or why Jones just can't break his addiction to strip club violence. Or how this doesn't involve Vegas' notoriously corrupt strip club-based government.

"I think he doesn't make the best decisions at times," Horvath said. "I can tell the difference between somebody who's had a father figure in their life all the time and somebody who hasn't. And I don't know, man. I wish he would have had one."

A bad night at the Minxx during NBA weekends [Las Vegas Review Journal; parts II and III later this week]
Trial delayed for alleged gunman in 'Pacman' case - Las Vegas Sun [Las Vegas Sun]
NEWSPAPER UNCOVERS PICTURES OF PACMAN MAKING IT RAIN IN VEGAS STRIP CLUB THE NIGHT OF SHOOTING [The Sports Pig's Blog]
Also Helpful: Pacman Jones History [Esquire]

Snohomish County sheriff's deputies were called to one of the players' homes after the boy told his stepfather that his coach had taken him along to break into a shop in Arlington, Okoloko wrote.

The stepfather was angry that an adult would use the boys to commit a crime, and, even worse, "that the adult was his son's baseball coach," Okoloko wrote.

The boy told investigators that [George] Spady's son crawled through a vent on the back side of the shop and unlocked the door for his father. Spady, his son and Spady's nephew then went inside and came out with light fixtures and some other items, according to court documents.

The boy told investigators that Spady yelled at him to go inside and grab more from the shop, and told him to hurry up because he saw a truck drive by, Okoloko wrote.

The boys will not be charged because they have a game next week—and they might actually have a chance to win now that this dope isn't coaching them anymore.

HeraldNet: Arlington coach put Little League boys up to burglary, police say [Daily Herald]
The Great Little League Caper of ‘09! [Steady Burn]