Run-DMC

Two men were convicted of murder Tuesday in the death of Run-DMC star Jam Master Jay, a brazen 2002 shooting in the rap legend’s studio. An anonymous Brooklyn federal jury found Karl Jordan Jr. and Ronald Washington guilty on charges of murder while engaged in a narcotics trafficking conspiracy and firearm-related murder for killing the pioneering DJ over what prosecutors characterized as revenge for a failed drug deal. “Y’all just killed two innocent people,” Washington yelled at the jury…

A jury found two men, Karl Jordan Jr. and Ronald Washington, guilty of murdering the pioneering and world-famous DJ Jam Master Jay in 2002 at the conclusion of a federal trial on Tuesday. The verdict ends decades of speculation about why Jay, whose real name was Jason Mizell, had been killed. The jurors delivered the decision after weeks of testimony at the U.S. District Court – Eastern Division of New York courthouse in Brooklyn. In 2020, U.S. attorneys indicted Jordan and Washington of conspiring to kill and…

Ronald Washington, one of the two defendants standing trial for allegedly killing Jam Master Jay, chuckled in court on Wednesday when his attorney, Susan Kellman, invoked Harry Potter in her closing arguments. The moment came as she discussed the prosecution’s theory that Washington and the other defendant, Karl Jordan Jr., were waiting on a fire escape to enter the recording studio where the DJ, whose real name was Jason Mizell, was killed. She said it was impossible, since the two men would have been seen on…

The trial for two men accused of killing Run-DMC’s pioneering DJ in 2002 began its denouement in court on Tuesday as the prosecution made its closing arguments. In summarizing the government’s case over two hours, prosecutor Artie McConnell decried the “brutality,” “arrogance,” and “audacity” of the murder of Jam Master Jay. Since Jan. 29, a jury has heard testimony from 35 U.S. government witnesses to argue that defendant Karl Jordan Jr. fatally shot the DJ, whose real name was Jason Mizell, at a Jamaica, Queens…

The ex-girlfriend of one of the defendants indicted in the 2002 death of Jam Master Jay told a Brooklyn jury on Thursday that the defendant “basically” confessed to killing the Run-DMC DJ, according to The Associated Press. The woman, Daynia McDonald, claimed that Ronald Washington brought her to the recording studio to meet Jay, whose real name is Jason Mizell, and then called her hours later to tell her Mizell was dead. She asked him how he knew, and she testified, “He said, ‘Because I was there.'” When she…

Immediately after Jam Master Jay was killed in 2002, the recording studio where he had been hanging out became a scene of chaos. Randy Allen, a childhood friend of the DJ, whose legal name was Jason Mizell, gave testimony on Tuesday at the Brooklyn trial where two men stand accused of murdering Mizell. He said he was in the studio’s control room, smoking a joint and listening to an unsigned artist’s demo CD when he heard gunshots in the next room. “It didn’t in my head that that’s what was,” he told the jury. “I…

A woman who worked as business manager for Jam Master Jay‘s label at the time of his death gave emotional testimony in the Brooklyn trial for the two men indicted for killing him in 2002. Lydia High was crying and often paused to collect herself Monday while telling the jury about how she had originally planned a quick visit to the recording studio where the Run-DMC DJ, whose legal name was Jason Mizell, was working. It was Oct. 30, 2002, and he was leaving for a Run-DMC tour the next day. Before he could leave,…

Jam Master Jay “was nervous about something” days before he was killed, according to witness testimony on Thursday at the Brooklyn trial for two men accused of killing the Run-DMC DJ in 2002. The Associated Press reports that Stephon Watford, a cousin and business associate of the late DJ (whose real name was Jason Mizell), told the jury Mizell had started carrying a gun to protect himself in the days prior to the fatal shooting. Watford also claimed that one of the defendants, Ronald Washington, had asked for…

Jam Master Jay exclaimed “Oh shit” just before he was shot and killed in October 2002, according to testimony given in court on Wednesday. Uriel “Tony” Rincon, a friend and business associate of the late DJ (whose real name was Jason Mizell) explained his recollection of what happened when assailants entered a recording studio, killing the DJ and shooting Rincon in the leg to the jury at a Brooklyn federal court. Rincon, who dried his eyes and sniffled during emotional testimony, told both a U.S. attorney and a…

The trial for two men accused of the 2002 murder of Jam Master Jay began with prosecutors alleging that the men had killed the Run-DMC DJ after feeling cut out of a cocaine trafficking deal he was involved in. Defense attorneys for the men countered that the U.S. government had faulty info based on the faded, decades-old memories of witnesses. The opening remarks took place at the United States District Court – Eastern Division of New York in Brooklyn on Monday morning. Judge LaShann DeArcy Hall is presiding over…