Jam Master Jay murder: 2 men convicted nearly 22 years after Run-DMC's rapper's death
An anonymous Brooklyn jury found two men guilty of murder in the 2002 shooting death of Run-DMC star Jam Master Jay on Tuesday.
During the trial, prosecutors alleged that Karl Jordan Jr. and Ronald Washington killed the famed DJ as an act of revenge for a failed drug deal. The pair were found guilty on charges of murder while engaging in a narcotics trafficking conspiracy and firearm-related murder.
"Y'all just killed two innocent people," Washington yelled at the jury following the guilty verdict, according to the Associated Press.
Jam Master Jay, born Jason Mizell, worked the turntables in Run-DMC as it went from hip-hop group to pop music giants with mainstream fame in the 1980s with hits including "It's Tricky" and a fresh take on Aerosmith's "Walk This Way." Later, Mizell started a record label, opened a studio in his old Queens neighborhood and helped mentor young stars like rapper 50 Cent.
Mizell was shot dead in his studio in front of others on Oct. 30, 2002.
Jam Master Jay's cousin says guilty verdict lifted '2,000-pound weight' off his shoulders
Relatives of Mizell welcomed the verdict and lamented that his mother did not live to see it.
"I feel like I was carrying a 2,000-pound weight on my shoulders. And when that verdict came today, it lifted it off," said Carlis Thompson, Mizell's cousin, who wiped away tears after the verdict was read. "The wounds can start to heal now."
"It’s no mystery 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 terrified that they would be retaliated against if they cooperated with law enforcement."
"Their strength and resolve in testifying at this trial were a triumph of right over wrong and courage over fear," Peace added.
Defense lawyers said they asked the judge to set aside the verdict and acquit them.
“My client did not do this. And the jury heard testimony about the person who did," one of Washington’s lawyers, Susan Kellman, told reporters.
Context: Prosecutors charge 3rd man in 2002 shooting death of Run-DMC's Jam Master Jay
'A long time to wait for justice' as Jam Master Jay verdict comes 22 years after rapper's killing
Like the killings of rap icons Tupac Shakur and the Notorious B.I.G. in the late 1990s, the Mizell case remained open for years. Authorities were flooded with tips, rumors and theories but struggled to get witnesses to open up and come forward.
Jordan, 40, was the famous DJ's godson. Washington, 59, was an old friend who was bunking at the home of the DJ's sister. Both men were arrested in 2020 and pleaded not guilty.
"Twenty years is a long time to wait for justice," Assistant U.S. Attorney Artie McConnell said during closing arguments. "Don't let this go on for another minute."
The men's names, or at least their nicknames, have been floated for decades in connection to the case. Authorities publicly named Washington as a suspect in 2007. He, meanwhile, told Playboy magazine in 2003 that he'd been outside the studio, heard the shots and saw "Little D" − one of Jordan's monikers − racing out of the building.
Prosecutors contend that the two men turned on him over a cocaine deal.
Why do prosecutors say two men killed Run DMC's Jam Master Jay?
Mizell had been part of Run-DMC's anti-drug message, delivered through a public service announcement and such lyrics as "we are not thugs / we don't use drugs." But according to prosecutors and trial testimony, he racked up debts after the group's heyday and moonlighted as a cocaine middleman to cover his bills and habitual generosity to friends.
"He was a man who got involved in the drug game to take care of the people who depended on him," McConnell said in his summation.
Prosecution witnesses testified that in Mizell's final months, he had a plan to acquire 10 kilograms of cocaine and sell it through Jordan, Washington and a Baltimore-based dealer. But the Baltimore connection refused to work with Washington, according to testimony.
Washington and Jordan went after Mizell out of vengeance, greed and jealousy, prosecutors allege.
Two eyewitnesses, former studio aide Uriel Rincon and former Mizell business manager 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 moments before shots rang out and one bullet wounded Rincon himself. Three other people, including a teenage singer who had just stopped by the studio to tout her demo tape, testified that they were in an adjoining room and heard but didn't see what happened.
Defendants Karl Jordan Jr. and Ronald Washington didn't testify in Jam Master Jay trial
Other witnesses testified that Washington and Jordan made incriminating statements about the Mizell killing after it happened.
Neither Washington nor Jordan testified. However, their lawyers did question the credibility of key prosecution witnesses and their memories of the long-ago shooting. They noted that some had at first denied they could identify the attackers or had heard who they were.
"Virtually every witness changed their testimony 180 degrees," one of Washington's lawyers, Susan Kellman, told the judge during legal arguments.
The witnesses also said they had been overwhelmed, reluctant to pass along secondhand information or they were scared for their lives if they spoke up.
Washington's defense also brought in a retired psychology professor, who testified that people's recollections of any event can warp what they experienced and subsequently learned.
Background: Trial to begin for men accused of killing Run-DMC star Jam Master Jay
Jam Master Jay trial introduces third defendant Jay Bryant
The trial shed limited light on a third defendant in Mizell's killing.
Jay Bryant was charged last year after prosecutors said his DNA was found on a hat at the scene. Prosecutors assert he slipped into the studio building and let Washington and Jordan in through the fire door in the back so they could avoid buzzing up.
Bryant has pleaded not guilty and is headed toward a separate trial.
Testimony suggested he knew someone in common with his co-defendants, but there's no indication that Bryant was close with Mizell, if indeed they 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 witnesses described.
McConnell said Bryant was "involved, but he's not the killer."
Prosecutors' theory doesn't even place Bryant in the studio. However, that’s where authorities found the hat with DNA from him and other people − but not the other defendants, according to court filings.
Still, McConnell suggested that Jordan or Washington could accidentally have left the hat behind after Bryant came into contact with it. But lawyers for Washington and Jordan portrayed the garment as a key piece of evidence in their clients' favor.
"Jay Bryant is literally reasonable doubt," one of Jordan's lawyers, Michael Hueston, told jurors during trial.
Run-D.M.C's 'Walk This Way' brought hip-hop to the masses and made Aerosmith cool again
Experts weigh in on Jam Master Jay trial
While the case may complicate Mizell's image, Syracuse University media professor J. Christopher Hamilton says it shouldn't be blotted out.
If he was indeed involved in dealing drugs, "that doesn’t mean to say his achievements shouldn't be lauded," said Hamilton, a former entertainment lawyer and Brooklyn prosecutor who grew up partly in Mizell’s neighborhood. Hamilton argues that acceptance from local underworld figures was a necessity for successful rappers of the ’80s and ’90s.
"You don’t get these individuals without them walking through the gauntlet of the street," Hamilton said.
Contributing: Jay Stahl, USA TODAY; Jennifer Peltz and Cedar Attanasio, The Associated Press
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Jam Master Jay murder: 2 men convicted of Run-DMC rapper's death
