It has taken more than eight years for justice to visit former NBA star Jayson Williams for shooting to death his limo driver at his home.

And justice arrived in the form of an 18-month jail sentence.

Williams, a former New Jersey Net star, will serve time after pleading guilty to aggravated assault in the 2002 shooting. Williams, 41, will also not duck the more serious charges of reckless manslaughter in the killing of driver Costas Christofi.

The family of the slain man has not commented on the plea deal, but they likely won't be happy with the outcome of the nearly-decade-long ordeal. When Williams faced three years in an earlier plea deal, Christofi's sister called that sentence "an insult."

In 2003, Williams paid the Christofi family $2.75 million in a wrongful death civil suit. A year later, he was acquitted on charges of aggravated manslaughter but was convicted of cover-up charges in trying to make it look like Christofi shot himself.

Little has gone right for Williams since the night of the shooting. He is locked in a bitter divorce battle and claims to be broke, though he made more than $80 million in contract payments with the New Jersey Nets. He was arrested in April after a confrontation with police and authorities later found suicide notes in his hotel room. Earlier this month, Williams broke a bone in his neck in a car accident on a Manhattan roadway. He was charged with DWI.