NEW YORK (AP) — More than 20 years after Run-DMC star Jam Master Jay was brazenly shot to death in his recording studio, two men close to him were convicted of murder Tuesday, marking a long-awaited moment in one of the hottest events. The elusive cases of the hop world.
An anonymous Brooklyn federal jury found Karl Jordan Jr. and Ronald Washington guilty of killing the pioneering DJ in 2002, which prosecutors said was revenge for a failed drug deal.
The musician, born Jason Mizell, worked on Run-DMC's turntables when hip-hop took off in the 1980s with hits like “It's Tricky” and a new take on Aerosmith's “Walk This Way.” brought pop music to the mainstream.
Similar to the murders of rap icons Tupac Shakur and The Notorious BIG in the late 1990s, there were no arrests for years. Authorities have been inundated with tips, rumors and theories but have struggled to persuade witnesses to come forward.
AP correspondent Margie Szaroleta reports on a conviction in the Jam Master Jay murder case.
“It's no secret why it took years to indict and arrest the defendants,” Breon Peace, the top federal prosecutor in Brooklyn, told reporters after Tuesday's verdict. He said key witnesses were “fearful that they would suffer retaliation if they cooperated with law enforcement.”
“Your strength and determination to testify at this trial was a triumph of right over wrong and courage over fear,” Peace added.
Jordan, 40, was Mizell's godson. Washington, 59, was an old friend who was staying at the DJ's sister's house at the time of the shooting on Oct. 30, 2002. Both men were arrested in 2020 and pleaded not guilty.
“You just killed two innocent people,” Washington shouted at the jury after the guilty verdict. Jordan's supporters also erupted during the verdict and cursed the jury.
Defense attorneys said they had asked the judge to overturn the verdict and acquit her.
“My client didn’t do that. And the jury heard testimony about the person who did it,” Susan Kellman, a Washington lawyer, told reporters.
The men's names, or at least their nicknames, have been uttered in connection with the case for decades. Authorities publicly named Washington as a suspect in 2007. He told Playboy magazine in 2003 that he was outside the studio when he heard the shots and saw “Little D” – one of Jordan's nicknames – racing out of the building.
Mizell's relatives welcomed the verdict and lamented that his mother would not live to see it.
“I feel like I'm carrying a 2,000-pound weight on my shoulders. And when that verdict came down today, it was overturned,” said Carlis Thompson, Mizell’s cousin, who wiped tears from her eyes after the verdict was read. “The wounds can now begin to heal.”
Mizell was part of Run-DMC's anti-drug message, delivered through a public service announcement and lyrics such as “We're not thugs/We don't do drugs.” But according to prosecutors and court testimony, after the group's heyday, he racked up debts and worked part-time as a cocaine middleman to pay his bills and his usual generosity to friends.
“He was a man who got into the drug business to take care of the people who depended on him,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Artie McConnell said in his summary.
Prosecution witnesses testified that in his final months, Mizell had a plan to purchase 10 kilograms of cocaine and sell it through Jordan, Washington, and a Baltimore-based dealer. However, according to testimony, the Baltimore connection refused to cooperate with Washington.
Prosecutors said Washington and Jordan pursued Mizell out of revenge, greed and jealousy.
Two eyewitnesses, former studio assistant Uriel Rincon and former Mizell executive Lydia High, testified that Washington blocked the door and ordered High to lie on the floor. She said he brandished a gun.
Rincon identified Jordan as the man who approached Mizell and exchanged a friendly greeting just before shots rang out and a bullet wounded Rincon himself. Three other people, including a teenage singer who had just stopped by the studio to promote her demo tape, said they were in an adjoining room and heard but did not see what happened.
Other witnesses testified that Washington and Jordan made incriminating statements after Mizell's murder.
Neither Washington nor Jordan testified. Their lawyers questioned the credibility of key prosecution witnesses and their memories of the long-ago shooting, noting that some initially denied being able to identify the attackers or having heard who they were.
“Virtually every witness changed their testimony 180 degrees,” Kellman told the judge during the legal argument.
The witnesses said they were overwhelmed, unwilling to share second-hand information or feared for their lives.
The trial yielded limited insight into a third defendant, Jay Bryant, who was charged last year after prosecutors said his DNA was found on a hat at the crime scene. They claim he slipped into the studio building and let Washington and Jordan in through the fire door in the back room so they wouldn't get fired up.
Bryant has pleaded not guilty and faces a separate trial.
Testimony suggested that he and his co-defendants knew someone they had in common, but there is no indication that Bryant was close to Mizell if they actually ever met.
Bryant's uncle testified that his nephew told him he shot Mizell after the DJ reached for a gun, a scenario no other witness described.
McConnell said Bryant was “involved, but he is not the murderer.” The prosecution's theory is that Bryant wasn't even in the studio, even though authorities found the hat there with DNA from him and other people – but not from the other defendants, according to court documents.
One of Jordan's lawyers, Michael Hueston, said in his summary that Bryant had “literally reasonable doubt.”
The ruling comes a month before the 40th anniversary of Run-DMC's self-titled debut album, which included a track titled “Jam Master Jay,” Peace noted. The song praised Mizell as “on his way to becoming the best DJ in America.”
The group – also consisting of Darryl “DMC” McDaniels and Joseph Simmons, known as DJ Run and Rev. Run – became the first rappers with gold and platinum albums and was the first hip-hop group with a video regularly aired on MTV.
While the case could tarnish Mizell's image, J. Christopher Hamilton, a media professor at Syracuse University, says it shouldn't be erased.
If he was indeed involved in the drug trade, “that doesn't mean his achievements shouldn't be praised,” Hamilton said, arguing that acceptance by local underworld figures was a necessity for successful rappers of the '80s and '90s.
“You don’t get these people without them going through the gauntlet on the street,” Hamilton said.