A federal judge has overturned the conviction of Karl Jordan, one of the two men accused of killing Run-DMC legend Jam Master Jay.
In a decision filed in federal court Friday, U.S. District Judge LaShann DeArcy Hall granted the acquittal asked for by Jordan’s attorneys. A new trial was not ordered.
A similar request for acquittal by Jordan’s alleged accomplice, Ronald Washington, was denied.
A call to Jordan’s attorney, Michael Hueston, was not immediately returned. Washington’s attorney, Susan Kellman, declined to comment on the development. A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York also declined to comment.
A jury found Jordan and Washington guilty last year of the turntable master’s 2002 murder.
Jay, who was born Jason Mizell, was playing a video football game in his second-floor studio on Merrick Blvd. in Hollis, Queens, on Oct. 30, 2002, when a gunman shot him in the head.
The five other people in the studio kept quiet for years — out of fear, federal prosecutors said — until taking the stand over the course of roughly three weeks of testimony in Brooklyn Federal Court.
Mizell’s friend, Uriel “Tony” Rincon, said in 2007 he was inches away but never saw the killer’s face, identified Jordan as the shooter, and said Washington was standing guard over the studio door.
Prosecutors said Jordan, who was Mizell’s godson, and Washington killed the 37-year-old hip-hop icon because they were cut out of a cocaine deal.
AP Photo/Newsday, Ken Sawchuk
The body of Jason Mizell, a.k.a. Jam Master Jay, a member of the pioneering rap trio Run DMC, is removed from a recording studio where he was shot and killed, Oct. 30, 2002 in Queens. (AP Photo/Newsday, Ken Sawchuk)
Mizell had allegedly recruited Jordan and Washington to sell coke for him in Baltimore, according to court papers. Prosecutors alleged that the two men sought to kill Mizell, steal his drugs and take over the drug distribution plot in Maryland, which was the linchpin of Jordan’s case.
Judge Hall determined that the government never showed any evidence that could prove these motives.
“The government fails to identify evidence that Jordan was dissatisfied by his portion of revenue from drug sales, was in contact with any supplier, or otherwise made arrangements to carry on Mizell’s operation,” the judge wrote in her findings. “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.”
“Incredibly, the government does not identify a single specific record cite in support of these advanced motives,” she added. “To draw the conclusions urged by the government would exceed the bounds of reason and require plainly impermissible speculation.”
Jordan’s attorney also claimed that his client’s DNA was never found at the crime scene, while DNA belonging to Jay Bryant, 50, who confessed to his uncle that he shot Mizell, was.
Bryant’s hat was found in the studio with his DNA on it, attorneys said. Prosecutors contended that Bryant was at the studio and opened the door for Jordan and Washington.
In his confession to his uncle, Raymond Bryant, Jay Bryant admitted to being involved in Mizell’s murder and “said he would not have killed Jason Mizell if (he) didn’t reach for a gun.”
However, the jury was not convinced by the DNA evidence.
During the trial, prosecutors brought up a witness to the killing who identified Jordan as the shooter. He was also identified by a second witness through a neck tattoo and a third who heard him boast about killing Mizell.
Jordan and Washington were held at MDC Brooklyn jail as they awaited sentencing. During his stay, Jordan was repeatedly stabbed during a breakout of violence at the troubled jail.
