NEW YORK (AP) — It's been more than 20 years since Run-DMC star Jam Master Jay made his debut. brazenly shot At his recording studio, a jury convicted two men Tuesday of his murder, ending one of hip-hop's most elusive crimes.
An anonymous Brooklyn federal jury convicted Carl Jordan Jr. and Ronald Washington of murdering the trailblazing DJ in an incident that prosecutors viewed as revenge for a drug deal gone wrong.
Jay, real name Jason Mizell, played turntables for Run-DMC and helped hip-hop emerge in the 1980s with hits like “It's Tricky” and a fresh take on Aerosmith's “Walk This Way.” It helped break into the pop music mainstream.
Like the murder of a rap icon Tupac Shakur and the infamous B.I.G. In the late 1990s, the October 30, 2002 mass shooting remained unsolved for years. Authorities were inundated with information, rumors and theories, but had trouble uncovering any witnesses.
AP correspondent Margie Zaloreta reports on the murder conviction of Jam Master Jay.
“It's no wonder why it took so many years to indict and arrest this defendant,” Brooklyn's top federal prosecutor, Breon Peace, told reporters after the verdict. He said key witnesses “feared retaliation if they cooperated with law enforcement.”
Jordan, 40, was the famous DJ's godson. Washington, 59, was an old friend of DJ's who had been sleeping over at his sister's house. Both men arrested in 2020 And he pleaded not guilty.
“You just killed two innocent people,” Washington shouted to the jury after the guilty verdict.
Mr Jordan's supporters were also outraged by the verdict and taunted the jury. “I love you all,” Jordan said to a group of people sitting in the courtroom bleachers, before shouting and being chased out.
Lawyers for both men said they asked the judge to overturn the jury's guilty verdict and acquit them.
“We're optimistic,” Susan Kelman, one of Washington's lawyers, told reporters. “My client did no such thing. And the jury heard testimony about someone who did.”
The men's names, or at least their nicknames, have surfaced in connection with the case for decades. Authorities publicly named Washington a suspect in 2007. He told Playboy magazine in 2003 that he was outside the studio when he heard gunshots and saw “Little D,” one of Jordan's nicknames, run out of the building.
survive Relatives of Mizell He welcomed the verdict and lamented that his mother was not alive to see it.
“I feel like I was carrying a 2,000-pound weight on my shoulders, and when that sentence came out today, it lifted,” said Mizell's cousin, Karlis Thompson. After it was read aloud, he spoke while wiping away tears. “The wound is already starting to heal.”
Mizell participated in Run-DMC's anti-drug message, which was conveyed through public service announcements and lyrics such as “We're not thugs/We don't do drugs.” However, according to prosecutors, trial testimonyafter the group's heyday, he racked up debts and moonlighted as a cocaine broker to cover the bills and his habitual generosity to friends.
“He was a man who entered the drug trade to take care of the people who depended on him,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Artie McConnell said in his summing up.
Prosecution witnesses testified that during Mizell's final months, he obtained 10 kilograms of cocaine and planned to sell it through dealers based in Jordan, Washington, and Baltimore.but The Baltimore Connection refused to cooperate with Washington.According to testimony.
Prosecutors argued that Washington and Jordan pursued Mizell out of revenge, greed, and jealousy.
2 witnesses, former studio assistant Uriel Rincon Former Mizell business manager Lydia High said Washington blocked the door. I ordered Hai to lie down on the floor.. She said he brandished a gun.
Rincon identified Jordan as the man who approached Mizell and exchanged friendly greetings before gunshots rang out and one shot was fired. Rincon himself was injured..3 people including others A teenage singer who just stopped by She testified that she was in the studio promoting her demo tape, but that they were in the next room listening but did not see what happened.
Other witnesses testified that after the murder occurred, Washington and Jordan made incriminating statements about Mizell's murder.
Neither Washington nor Jordan testified. Their lawyers questioned the reliability and recollection of the old shootings of key prosecution witnesses, noting that some initially could not identify the attackers or denied ever hearing them. did.
“Virtually every witness changed their testimony 180 degrees,” Kelman told the judge during court arguments.
Witnesses said they were overwhelmed and reluctant to share second-hand information or feared for their lives.
Trials shed limited light third defendant, Jay Bryant, who was indicted last year after prosecutors said his DNA was found on a hat at the scene. They claimed he snuck into the studio building and let Washington and Jordan in through the back fire door to avoid making a scene.
Bryant has pleaded not guilty and will face another trial.
Testimony suggests that Bryant knew someone in common with his co-defendants, but there is no indication that Bryant was intimate with Mizell, if they ever met.
Bryant's uncle testified that he said his nephew shot Mizell after DJ reached for his gun, a scenario no other witness described.
McConnell said Bryant was “involved, but not the murderer.” According to court filings, prosecutors' theory does not say Bryant was in the studio, but that's where authorities found hats containing his and other people's DNA, but not other defendants. says that it was not so.
Lawyers for Washington and Jordan argued that the clothing was key evidence in their clients' favor.
“Jay Bryant literally has reasonable doubt,” Michael Houston, one of Jordan's attorneys, told jurors.
While the incident may complicate Mizell's image, Syracuse University media professor J. Christopher Hamilton says it shouldn't be dismissed.
Hamilton said that even if he was indeed involved in the drug trade, “that doesn't mean he shouldn't be celebrated for his work” and that acceptance from local underworld figures dates back to the 1980s. He claimed that it was essential for successful rappers in the 1990s.
“You don't find these people unless you walk the streets,” Hamilton said.
