TRIAL STARTS FOR 2 MEN ACCUSED IN 2002 KILLING OF RUN-DMC DJ
Two men accused of killing Run-DMC’s Jam Master Jay were both close to the trailblazing DJ, but were driven by “greed and revenge” over a failed drug deal when they ambushed him at his recording studio more than 20 years ago, prosecutors argued as the men’s trial began Monday.
In opening statements in Brooklyn federal court, Assistant U.S. Attorney Miranda Gonzalez laid out the prosecution’s case that Karl Jordan Jr., the hip-hop star’s godson, and Ronald Washington, a childhood friend, killed the 37-year-old in 2002 after they were cut out of a lucrative cocaine deal. Both men have pleaded not guilty.
While the case languished for almost two decades until Jordan and Washington were arrested in 2020, becoming one of the hip-hop world’s most elusive mysteries, Gonzalez told jurors that they would hear from eyewitnesses who were in the studio that night, and that the pair confessed their involvement to others.
“Each defendant was proud that they had taken down Jam Master Jay and got away with it,” she said.
Washington’s lawyer Ezra Spilke, however, argued that the case was held together with “tape and glue” and declared that prosecutors have “no clue” who killed Jay, who was born Jason Mizell.
“This case is about 10 seconds, 21 years ago,” he said. “It’s a blink of an eye, a generation ago.”
The men face at least 20 years in prison if convicted. The government has said it would not seek the death penalty.
Mizell worked the turntables alongside rappers Joe “Run” Simmons and Darryl “DMC” McDaniels as the group helped bring hip-hop into the mainstream in the 1980s with hits like “It’s Tricky” and a remake of Aerosmith’s “Walk This Way.”
Run-DMC famously espoused an anti-drug stance in lyrics and PSAs, but Gonzalez said that as the spotlight faded, Mizell turned to the drug trade, serving as a middleman to sellers and buyers across the country. A few simple calls, she said, could earn him “hundreds of thousands” of dollars.
Mizell had allegedly acquired 22 pounds of cocaine, which Washington, Jordan and others planned to distribute in the Baltimore area. But the dealer involved in the sale refused to work with Washington, cutting both defendants out of a potential $200,000 payday, she alleged.
Lawyers for Jordan and Washington argued that the police still haven’t figured out the case, and they urged jurors to be skeptical of witnesses who are cooperating in exchange for leniency on their own legal troubles.