Trial begins in cold case murder of Run-DMC’s ‘Jam Master Jay’

Metro

By Kyle Schnitzer and Ben Kochman

Jury selection kicked off Monday in the federal trial of two men charged with murdering hip-hop legend Jason Mizell — better known as Run-DMC’s Jam Master Jay — in his Queens studio more than twenty years ago as revenge for being cut out of a cocaine deal.

Ronald Washington, 59, and Karl Jordan, 40, face murder and narcotics trafficking charges after they were arrested in 2020 for the chilling, execution-style killing at Mizell’s 24/7 Studio on Merrick Boulevard.

The pair, who like Mizell hail from Hollis, Queens, decided to kill the hip-hop icon after Jay threatened to cut Washington out of a deal to sell 10 kilos of cocaine to customers in Maryland, according to prosecutors in the Eastern District of New York.

Both men were armed when they burst into the studio at around 7:30 p.m. on Oct. 30, 2002, court papers say.

Once inside, Washington pointed his gun at another person inside the music studio, demanding that they get on the floor, prosecutors say. Jordan then allegedly approached Mizell and fired two shots at close range.

One of the bullets struck Mizell in the head — killing him — while the other hit a witness to the shooting in the leg, authorities say.

A third man, 49-year-old Jay Bryant, 49, was separately indicted in connection with the murder in May and is expected to be tried separately.

Jordan was arrested in 2020 after allegedly selling narcotics to undercover law enforcement officers seven separate times.

Washington had been near the end of a 17-year prison stint after a 2007 conviction for a string of armed robberies in New York City and on Long Island when he was indicted for Mizell’s murder.

Both men have pleaded not guilty.

A few dozen potential jurors were screened in Brooklyn federal court Monday, and prospective panelists were asked if they were familiar with Run-DMC. The trial is expected to last about a month.

Mizell was one of the founding members of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame group, which he created with Joseph “Run” Simmons and Darryl “DMC” McDaniel in the early 1980s.

The group’s many hits, including “It’s Tricky” and a 1986 remake of Aerosmith’s “Walk This Way,” helped usher hip-hop music into the mainstream.