By Steve Gorman
Dec 19 (Reuters) – A U.S. federal judge on Friday overturned the conviction of one of two men found guilty of murdering pioneering rap star Jam Master Jay in 2002 as part of a drug-dealing dispute, ruling that prosecutors had failed to satisfactorily prove their case.
U.S. District Judge LaShann DeArcy Hall granted a rare judgment of acquittal for Karl Jordan, whom a jury had found guilty in the shooting death of Jason Mizell, the legal name of the famed rap DJ, producer and founding member of the hip-hop group Run-DMC.
The judge denied a similar request for Jordan’s co-defendant, Ronald Washington.
Jordan, the godson of Mizell, and Washington, a longtime friend of the rap artist, were found guilty in February 2024 on federal charges of murder while engaged in narcotics trafficking.
The U.S. attorney’s office in the Eastern District of New York state, where the case was tried, is reviewing the decision, a spokesperson told The New York Times.
Mizell and his Run-DMC bandmates helped usher rap into the pop mainstream in the 1980s with such hits as “It’s Tricky” and a cover of Aerosmith’s “Walk This Way” off the best-selling 1986 album “Raising Hell.”
The group was known for decidedly anti-drug messages in its lyrics and concerts. But as Mizell’s showbiz success waned in the 1990s, he turned to dealing cocaine to help fund his music career, according to evidence presented at trial.
Mizell was shot dead the night of October 30, 2002, in his New York City recording studio, in what the prosecutors said was a disagreement with Jordan and Washington stemming from a lucrative deal to distribute cocaine in Baltimore.
Prosecutors said the case took many years to solve because witnesses were reluctant to cooperate with investigators for fear of retribution.
The government’s case, as charged, hinged in part on proving a drug-related motive for the killing, the judge ruled.
Prosecutors argued in court that Jordan and Washington conspired to kill Mizell, who operated as a “middleman,” after he cut them out of the Baltimore drug deal.
However, Judge DeArcy Hall found that prosecutors presented no evidence that Jordan had been cut or felt dissatisfied with his share of drug proceeds – leaving no reason for retaliation – and no evidence that he intended to steal from Mizell’s supplies.
“To draw the conclusions urged by the government would exceed the bounds of reason and require plainly impermissible speculation” on the part of the jury, the judge wrote in a 29-page opinion.
A third defendant, Jay Bryant, also was indicted in the killing and faces a separate trial.
Jordan has maintained that Bryant shot Mizell.
According to prosecutors’ account, Jordan shot Mizell in the head at close range when the DJ stood up to greet his godson. The government said Bryant had entered the studio and let in Jordan and Washington, both armed with handguns, through a locked rear fire exit.
(Reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Editing by William Mallard)
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