Juror tossed in rap trial
Jam Master Jay murder deliberations now must start over
One of the jurors in the Jam Master Jay murder trial was cut loose during deliberations Monday after he revealed — nearly a month after the trial started — that he felt too connected to the Queens neighborhood where the 2002 killing took place.
Juror No. 12 was replaced by an alternate after Judge LaShann DeArcy Hall received a note from the jury foreman that the juror was a regular customer at a Hollis barbershop mentioned during the Brooklyn Federal Court trial.
The change means the anonymous jury will have to completely restart its deliberations to get the alternate up to speed.
“As a matter of law, frankly, because we have replaced a juror, your deliberations must begin anew,” the judge said.
The defendants, Karl “Little D” Jordan Jr. and Ronald “Tinard” Washington, are accused of killing the Run-DMC founder, real name Jason Mizell, in his Queens music studio on Oct. 30, 2002.
Before the trial began, Juror No. 12 filled out a questionnaire saying that he was a Queens resident and used to live in Long Island and Far Rockaway.
“I have passed through Hollis many times,” he said.
The jurors spent a full day deliberating on Thursday, and listened to a readback of testimony from two eyewitnesses to the shooting, then went home for a three-day weekend.
Juror No. 12’s concerns surfaced on Monday, and after speaking with the juror in the presence of the prosecution and defense teams, DeArcy Hall agreed to bounce the juror. She told the remaining jurors the reason for his departure was “no concern of yours, so it should not be the basis of discussion.”
It was not made clear in open court proceedings if the juror was talking about the barber shop around the corner from Mizell’s Merrick Blvd. studio. One witness testified that he ran to the barber shop in the moments after the shooting to find Mizell’s nephew.
Jordan and Washington were indicted in 2020 on charges they murdered the 37-year-old hip-hop icon because they were cut out of a cocaine deal.
Jordan is accused of shooting Mizell point-blank in the head, while Washington guarded the studio door, ordering business manager Lydia High to the floor at gunpoint.
The jury heard from High and Mizell’s friend Uriel “Tony” Rincon, who was sitting inches away from him playing a video game.
The duo’s defense lawyers countered that the witnesses’ memory can’t be trusted after more than two decades had passed, and argued that a third man, Jay Bryant, was the real killer.
Bryant, whose DNA was found on a hat in the studio and who confessed to his uncle, will face trial in 2026 after his case was severed from Jordan and Washington.