Judge throws out conviction of man found guilty of killing Run-DMC star

A US judge has voided the conviction of one of the two men found guilty of the 2002 killing of Run-DMC star Jam Master Jay, ruling that there was not enough evidence that the man had a motive to kill the hip-hop luminary.

Nearly two years after a jury delivered its verdict, the decision came from the same Brooklyn federal judge who presided over the trial. In Friday’s ruling, US District Judge LaShann DeArcy Hall granted Karl Jordan Jr an acquittal on the murder charges.

An eyewitness testified that he saw Jordan shoot the pioneering DJ – his own godfather – in his Queens recording studio on October 30 2002.

But Jordan’s lawyers had argued that the evidence did not support prosecutors’ claims that he killed Jam Master Jay, born Jason Mizell, as revenge for a failed drug deal.

“We are really happy for Mr Jordan and his family that justice was served,” one of his lawyers, John Diaz, said in an email. Jordan had not yet been sentenced on the murder charges, but remains behind bars awaiting trial on drug charges from many years after the killing.

A message seeking comment was sent to prosecutors.

Separately, the judge denied co-defendant Ronald Washington’s bid for an acquittal or a new trial.

One of his lawyers, Susan Kellman, noted that he can pursue further appeals.

Washington and Jordan were tried together, and witnesses gave evidence that Washington blocked the door during the shooting and ordered one of the DJ’s aides to get on the ground.

But the judge concluded that the evidence about a drug-row motive was stronger against Washington than against Jordan. There was evidence that arguments between Washington and a Baltimore-based drug seller torpedoed a potential six-figure cocaine deal involving Jordan, Washington and Mizell.

“A jury could reasonably infer that Washington was excluded from a potentially lucrative Baltimore deal and sought to retaliate against Mizell for his exclusion,” the judge wrote in the papers released on Friday.

But, she asked, “from what evidence, then, could the jury have reasonably inferred that Jordan sought to retaliate against Mizell for the failure of the Baltimore deal? There was none.”

Run-DMC – the first rap group to notch gold and platinum albums and to have a video in rotation on MTV – spoke out against drugs in lyrics, a public service announcement and shows. But after the group peaked, Mizell got into debt and dabbled as a cocaine-market middleman, according to prosecutors and trial testimony.

Neither Washington nor Jordan testified at the trial, where their defence rested largely on questioning key prosecution witnesses’ credibility and their memories of the long-ago shooting.

Washington’s lawyers also questioned why he would have any reason to kill an old friend who helped him financially. Mizell’s sister even was letting Washington sleep on her couch.

Jordan’s lawyers also urged jurors to consider a third man, Jay Bryant, who was charged in Mizell’s killing in 2023, well after Jordan and Washington. Prosecutors have said Bryant’s DNA was found on a hat at the shooting scene, and Bryant’s uncle testified that his nephew told him he shot Mizell.

Bryant has pleaded not guilty and is awaiting trial.

Jam Master Jay worked the turntables in Run-DMC as the group helped hip-hop break into the pop music mainstream in the 1980s with such hits as It’s Tricky and a fresh take on Aerosmith’s Walk This Way.