NEW YORK — A judge Friday voided the conviction of one of the two men found guilty of the 2002 killing of Run-D.M.C. star Jam Master Jay, ruling that there wasn't enough evidence that the man had a motive to kill the hip-hop luminary.
The reversal, which came as the judge upheld the other man's conviction, marked another stunning and confounding turn in one of the hip-hop world's most elusive cases. It stymied investigators for nearly two decades before two arrests were made in 2020, and authorities had hailed the 2024 convictions as finally getting justice for one of rap's pioneers.
Jam Master Jay, born Jason Mizell, worked the turntables in Run-D.M.C. as the group helped hip-hop gain mainstream popularity in the 1980s with such hits as “It’s Tricky” and a fresh take on Aerosmith’s “Walk This Way.” His death followed the fatal shootings of Tupac Shakur in 1996 and The Notorious B.I.G. in 1997, forming a skein of tragic violence that took the lives of some of rap's biggest talents at the turn of the millennium. Mizell was 37.
Nearly two years after the jury verdict in the case surrounding his death, the decision came from the same Brooklyn federal judge who presided over the trial. In Friday's ruling, U.S. District Judge LaShann DeArcy Hall granted Karl Jordan Jr. an acquittal on the murder charges — a request she had denied when his lawyers made it during the trial.
An eyewitness testified that he saw Jordan shoot the DJ — his own godfather — in his Queens recording studio on Oct. 30, 2002. A onetime tenant in Jordan's home also testified that he overheard Jordan admit to the killing. But during more than 18 months of post-verdict presentations, Jordan's lawyers argued that the evidence didn't support prosecutors' claims about his alleged motive: revenge for a failed drug deal.
“We are really happy for Mr. Jordan and his family that justice was served,” one of his attorneys, John Diaz, said in an email. Jordan had not yet been sentenced on the murder charges, but he remains behind bars awaiting trial on drug charges from many years after the killing.
Prosecutors said they were reviewing the ruling.
Separately, the judge denied co-defendant Ronald Washington's bid for an acquittal or a new trial. One of his lawyers, Susan Kellman, noted that he can pursue further appeals.
Washington and Jordan were tried together, and witnesses testified that Washington blocked the door during the shooting and ordered one of the DJ’s aides to get on the ground.
But the judge concluded that the evidence about a drug-beef motive was stronger against Washington than against Jordan. There was testimony that bad blood between Washington and a Baltimore-based drug seller torpedoed a potential six-figure cocaine deal involving Jordan, Washington and Mizell.
“A jury could reasonably infer that Washington was excluded from a potentially lucrative Baltimore deal and sought to retaliate against Mizell for his exclusion,” the judge wrote in the papers released Friday. But, she asked, “from what evidence, then, could the jury have reasonably inferred that Jordan sought to retaliate against Mizell for the failure of the Baltimore deal? There was none.”
Run-D.M.C. — the first rap group to notch gold and platinum albums and to have a video in rotation on MTV — spoke out against drugs in lyrics, a public service announcement and shows. But after the group peaked, Mizell got into debt and dabbled as a cocaine-market middleman, according to prosecutors and trial testimony.
Neither Washington nor Jordan testified at the trial, where their defense rested largely on questioning key prosecution witnesses’ credibility and their memories of the long-ago shooting. Washington’s lawyers also questioned why he'd have any reason to kill an old friend who helped him financially. Mizell's sister even was letting the down-on-his-luck Washington live on her couch.
Jordan's lawyers also urged jurors to consider a third man, Jay Bryant, who was charged in Mizell's killing in 2023, well after Jordan and Washington. Prosecutors have said Bryant's DNA was found on a hat at the shooting scene, and Bryant's uncle testified that his nephew told him he shot Mizell.
Bryant has pleaded not guilty and is awaiting trial.
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