HOW FEDS CRACKED JAY SLAY
TOOK OVER COLD CASE AFTER QUEENS DA NIXED PROBE
A key witness to the murder of hip hop DJ Jam Master Jay 18 years ago gave cops details of the killing in 2015, a police source told the Daily News Tuesday.
Cops found the information given by the witness implicating at least one of the two men charged with the murder Monday to be solid, but the Queens DA balked at the idea of charging the crime on the word of a single witness, the source said.
So police took the case federal, according to the source.
“The DA didn’t want to go forward with one witness. We approached Eastern; they liked it,” the source said, referring to prosecutors in the Eastern District of New York, which covers Queens.
The feds were able to corroborate the info with other witnesses, according to the source.
It took another five years for federal prosecutors to announce the arrest of Karl Jordan Jr., 36, the alleged triggerman in the killing, as well as charges against serial felon Ronald “Tinard” Washington, 56, as an accomplice in the slaying of the 37-year-old Jay, born Jason Mizell, inside his Queens recording studio.
The high-profile murder of the RunDMC DJ went unsolved for nearly two decades despite his family’s calls for justice
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The feds named Washington as a suspect in the killing in 2007 during his trial on unrelated robbery charges, but they never charged him in the murder until this week.
Washington was sleeping on a sofa at the rap pioneer’s home in the days before the murder and has long denied any wrongdoing.
Mizell was in his Merrick Blvd. studio in Jamaica when the armed killers entered, according to federal prosecutors. Washington pointed his gun at an individual and ordered that person to lie on the floor, the feds said.
Jordan approached Mizell, pointed his gun at him, and shot him in the head, prosecutors said. Another man was shot in the leg.
The police source also suggested that Washington’s arrest Monday may have been made to stymie his request for compassionate release from jail in another case.
Washington was already in federal jail on robbery charges for a string of 2002 stickups in Queens near the studio where Mizell was murdered.
Washington requested a sentence reduction or immediate home confinement in the robbery case on July 7. He was set to be released in the robbery case in June 2022, his lawyer said.
The feds repeatedly asked for delays from a federal judge in response to Washington’s request, which the judge granted, ordering the government to respond no later than Aug. 21. Federal prosecutors still have not responded, according to court documents, instead charging Washington with the Mizell murder days before the Aug. 21 deadline.
It is likely any response from the feds to Washington’s motion for a sentence reduction will include the new charges against him in the Mizell case.
A spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office for the Eastern District of New York declined to comment on whether the timing of the charges had anything to do with Washington’s request for home confinement or sentence reduction. Washington was arraigned in the Mizell murder case Tuesday afternoon, with federal prosecutors calling for his continued jailing, saying he was “equally responsible” for the killing of Jam Master Jay even if he didn’t pull the trigger.
“Mr. Washington is about to finish his sentence on his underlying case but we’re asking your honor to remand him,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney Artie McConnell.
When asked by Judge Lois Bloom how he was doing, Washington responded, “Not too good.”