[ad_1]
Image source, fake images
Jam Master Jay’s murder shocked the music world in 2002
The godson and childhood friend of Run-DMC star Jam Master Jay have been convicted of his murder in New York City more than two decades ago.
Karl Jordan Jr, 40, and Ronald Washington, 59, attacked the musician in his recording studio after being excluded from a drug deal, the trial heard.
The hip-hop pioneer, whose real name is Jason Mizell, was 37 years old when he was shot in the head in Queens on October 30, 2002.
Jordan and Washington now face sentences of between 20 years and life in prison.
“You just killed two innocent people,” Washington shouted to the jury after the guilty verdict, according to the Associated Press. Jordan’s supporters also began shouting and cursing at the jury.
Mizell formed Run-DMC with his friends Joseph Simmons and Darryl McDaniels, all of whom grew up in the Hollis neighborhood of the New York borough of Queens.
The group became one of the most influential hip-hop groups of all time and had a string of hits in the 1980s, including songs like It’s Tricky, It’s Like That and the Aerosmith collaboration Walk This Way.
Although the group was publicly against drug use and made anti-drug public service announcements, Mizell turned to cocaine trafficking when his popularity began to fade in the 1990s.
Prosecutors said Jordan, Mizell’s godson, and Washington, a childhood friend who was staying with Mizell’s sister, thought they would be part of a drug deal worth nearly $200,000 and were angry when they were left out.
Image source, fake images
Run-DMC is one of the most influential groups in hip-hop history.
During a trial that lasted four weeks, defense attorney Ezra Spilke called the prosecution’s account of events “one version among many.”
The defense also questioned the accuracy of the witnesses’ testimony after so many years.
But prosecutors called dozens of witnesses, presented forensic evidence and said the defendant carried out an “execution” “motivated by greed and revenge.”
Although the two defendants had been suspects in the case for years, the murder remained unsolved before federal prosecutors charged them in 2020.
Two key witnesses denied they could identify the killers for years until they changed their stories after the case was reopened in 2016.
Uriel “Tony” Rincón testified that he was playing a video game with Mizell when Jordan entered the room, shook the hip-hop star’s hand and then began shooting.
“And then I see Jay fall,” he said.
A woman who worked for Mizell’s JMJ Records label, Lydia High, also witnessed the shooting and said Washington ordered her to get on the ground as the killers fled.
Both witnesses said that fear prevented them from identifying the killers sooner.
“I felt that (Mizell’s) wife and children needed closure, and I felt that they needed to know what happened,” Mr. Rincón testified during the trial.
Other witnesses testified that Jordan bragged about carrying out the murder.
“Witnesses in the recording studio knew the killers and were terrified that they would face retaliation if they cooperated with authorities,” U.S. Attorney Breon Peace told reporters after the verdict.
Another man, Jay Bryant, faces a separate trial in connection with this case.
He is expected to appear in court in 2026, accused of letting Jordan and Washington through the back door of the studio where Mizell was located.