Hip-hop pioneer Jam Master Jay was executed in an ambush motivated by “greed and revenge” for drugs, the federal prosecutor said Monday as the trial of DJ Run-DMC’s alleged killers began.
Ronald Washington, 59, and Karl Jordan Jr., 39, are accused of fatally shooting Jay, whose real name was Jason Mizell, at his Queens music studio in 2002.
“It was a brutal crime,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Miranda Gonzalez said during opening arguments in federal court in Brooklyn.
Washington and Jordan were arrested in 2020, and prosecutors claimed the long unsolved shooting was retaliation for a big cocaine deal gone wrong.
“The defendants had killed a world-famous musician in front of people they knew,” said González, who painted a detailed portrait of the events that led to the cold-blooded hit.
“It was an ambush. An execution,” he told the jury. “And you will learn that he was motivated by greed and revenge.”
Opening arguments began in Brooklyn federal court Monday in the murder trial of two men accused of the 2002 murder of Jason Mizell, better known as Run-DMC’s Jam Master Jay (center). Pay-as-you-go Ronald Washington, 59, and Karl Jordan Jr., 39, are accused of shooting Jay to death. AP
Mizell had served as a “middleman” for cocaine shipments once his Run-DMC money began to dry up in the mid-1990s, prosecutors claimed.
“As Run-DMC’s attention began to fade, money was no longer coming to Jason Mizell like it used to, so he turned to drugs to make money,” Gonzalez said.
Prosecutors allege Mizell was making hundreds of thousands of dollars in the illicit trade. One of those transactions, known as the “Baltimore Deal,” allegedly involved the shipment of $200,000 in drugs from New York City to Washington, DC.
However, prosecutors said things “did not go as planned” with the 10-kilogram coke deal.
The distributor allegedly did not want to work with Washington, a childhood friend of Mizell, which left him out of the deal. It also meant that Jordan, Mizell’s godson, would lose his share of the profits Washington expected.
It was this slight that led the men to ambush and kill Mizell, prosecutors claim.
On the night of the murder, Mizell was sitting on a couch playing video games in his 24/7 studio on Merrick Boulevard.
Gonzalez said the famous DJ had a .380-caliber handgun in the armrest of the couch, fearing for his safety after a visit from Washington earlier that day.
“People close to Jason will tell you that in the days before his murder, he seemed different,” she told the jury.
Jay Bryant, 49, who was charged separately for his role in the murder, let Jordan and Washington into the studio through a back entrance on the fire escape, according to the charges.
Loved ones of the defendants, Ronald Washington and Karl Jordan Jr., came to the courthouse to show their support. Gregory P. Mango A friend of Mizell’s family spoke to the media outside Brooklyn Federal Courthouse. Gregorio P. Mango
Mizell stood up as he saw Jordan enter the studio, who, prosecutors say, then “put a .40 caliber bullet into his head, killing him instantly.”
González noted that the fatal shot was fired at such close range that “it burned the hair and skin of his head.”
Prosecutors also noted Jordan’s callous indifference to the murder, stating that he later made statements that “if Jason Mizell was still alive, [I] “I would kill him again.”
Defense attorneys briefly addressed the court, proclaiming their clients’ innocence and casting doubt on the reliability of eyewitness testimony to the crime dating back more than 20 years.
“Karl Jordan Jr. did not kill Jason Mizell,” said Jordan’s attorney, John Diaz.
“This whole case revolves around 10 seconds, 21 years ago; the blink of an eye, a generation ago,” said Washington attorney Ezra Spilke.
Spilke went on to say that Washington and Mizell were like family, and admitted that his client was an alcoholic at the time who frequently crashed on the hip-hop DJ’s couch.
“If that’s the case, why bite the hand that feeds you? Why kill the only person you depend on?”
Also testifying in court today was Detective James Lusk, who now works in the Queens District Attorney’s Office but was in the 103rd Precinct at the time of the murder.
Lusk testified that in the moments that followed, Randy Allen, a business associate of Mizell’s who had been present at the shooting, ran on foot across the large municipal parking lot that separated the studio from the police station to report the crime.
Arriving at the studio about a minute later, Lusk found Mizell unconscious, “lying on the floor” in a huge pool of blood, and Allen’s sister, Lydia Hyde, who identified the shooter to police nine months after the crime, “crying hysterically.” “
Russell Simmons paid tribute to the legend with a coalition fund for Jam Master Jay’s family in 2002. DENNIS VAN TINE-LONDON FEATURES
The jury was then shown crime scene photographs, including bloody images of Mizell’s body, wearing white socks and a beige sweater, lying on the floor next to the couch with a PlayStation 2 video game controller nearby.
During cross-examination, Michael Houston, one of Jordan’s attorneys, asked the detective why they did not photograph the fire escape through which Jordan and Washington had entered the studio in 2002.
Lusk said he did not know if photographs were taken at the time.
Washington attorney Jacqueline Cistaro questioned why none of the five people who were in the studio at the time of the murder called 911.
Mizell had served as a “middleman” for cocaine shipments once his Run-DMC money began to dry up in the mid-1990s, prosecutors claimed. SUNSHINE
The detective said, “I don’t remember anyone calling 911,” but then noted that it probably would have been quicker for Allen to run to the police station like he did instead of calling for help.
Proudly hailing from Hollis, Queens, Run-DMC was a pioneering rap trio largely credited with bringing hip-hop to a mainstream audience with hits like “It’s Tricky” and “My Adidas.”
Unlike other peer artists, Run-DMC avoided the violence and criminality of street life, both in their lyrics and in their political activities.
The group famously made an anti-drug public service announcement in 1987, held voter registration drives at concerts and spoke out openly against Los Angeles gang violence.
They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2009.
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Source: vtt.edu.vn