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Jury selection began Monday in the trial of the two men accused of the 2002 shooting death of Jam Master Jay, a member of the legendary hip-hop group Run-DMC.
The defendants, Karl Jordan Jr, 40, and Ronald Washington, 59, are accused of murdering the musician over a drug deal. Opening statements were expected in state court in Brooklyn after the jury is selected.
Jordan and Washington have pleaded not guilty. If convicted, the men face at least 20 years in prison. The death penalty is not a possibility for the defendants, the government has stated.
Jordan also faces weapons and cocaine possession charges at trial, to which he has also pleaded not guilty. Although he has no criminal record as an adult, prosecutors say they have images of him selling cocaine to an undercover agent and he also participated in drug trafficking.
Jam Master Jay, whose real name was Jason Mizell, died at the age of 37 after being shot to death at a recording studio in his Queens neighborhood. His murder remained unsolved until authorities arrested Jordan and Washington in 2020.
A third suspect, Jay Bryant, 49, was also arrested in 2023 in connection with the murder, but is being tried separately.
Run-DMC, often credited for pushing hip-hop into the mainstream in the 1980s, saw Jay team up with rappers Joe “Run” Simmons and Darryl “DMC” McDaniels on hit songs like It’s complicated. The group rose to fame after performing the Aerosmith song. walk here in 1986, which fused the rap and rock genres.
Run-DMC was included in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2009 and were the first rappers to be featured prominently on MTV and on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine.
“Two turntables and a microphone: that’s all it took to change the world,” rapper Eminem said of the group when he inducted them into the hall of fame.
Although Run-DMC incorporated an anti-drug stance in its lyrics and public service announcements, prosecutors allege that Jay became involved in cocaine trafficking in the mid-1990s. They say he acquired 22 pounds (10 kg) that Jordan, Washington and others had planned to sell before a dispute led Jay to exclude Washington. Washington and Jordan then allegedly shot Jay to death at his recording studio in Jamaica, Queens, in New York City, on October 30, 2002.
Authorities offered a $60,000 reward for information related to Jay’s death, but witnesses remained silent and the trail of leads in the case was lost.
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Eventually, some witnesses identified Washington and Jordan as Jay’s killers. Prosecutors say Washington, who was named a suspect in 2007, confirmed his involvement in the murder through statements to authorities.
At the time, Washington was also on trial for a series of armed robberies, which he denies.
Washington is aforementioned In a 2003 Playboy magazine article titled The Last Days Of Jam Master Jay, he said that on the night Jay was murdered, he was heading to Jay’s studio when he heard gunshots and saw Jordan running away.
Jordan’s attorneys have said that his and Jay’s families were neighbors and that his parents were friends. They maintain that witnesses saw Jordan, then 18, at the home of his pregnant girlfriend at the time of Jay’s murder.
The Associated Press contributed reporting