Two men found guilty of murdering Jam Master Jay

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The DJ's murder remained unsolved for more than 20 years.

Agence France-Presse

Ronald Washington and Karl Jordan sons were found guilty Tuesday by a jury in Brooklyn federal court of murdering DJ and Run DMC co-founder Jam Master Jay, a hip-hop figure whose brutal death in 2002 shocked the world. ;rap universe.

Jam Master Jay was shot and killed at age 37 on October 30, 2002, at his recording studio in the Queens neighborhood of New York. The crime remained unsolved for nearly two decades, before the indictment in 2020 of two suspects, Ronald Washington and Karl Jordan Jr..

You have just killed two innocent people, said Ronald Washington as he was led out of the courtroom, while relatives of the accused, present at the trial which lasted almost a month, burst into tears.

According to' the accusation, the two men had acted out of revenge, after having been excluded from a sale of cocaine.

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Run DMC consisted of Jam Master Jay, Darryl “DMC” Matthews McDaniels and Joseph Ward Simmons, aka Rev Run.

Prosecutors relied on two witnesses who remained silent for a long time for fear of reprisals, according to the prosecution. According to their thesis, Karl Jordan Jr., 18 years old at the time and godson of the victim, shot the DJ in the head, while Ronald Washington held the other people present in the room at gunpoint. the studio.

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But defense attorneys point the finger at a third suspect, Jay Bryant, who was charged in May 2023 and is scheduled to be tried separately and at a later date. According to the prosecution, Jay Bryant is involved because he allowed the two accused to enter the studio, but for the defense, the heaviest suspicion falls on him .

The death of Jam Master Jay in his studio in Queens, the popular New York borough where Run was formed DMC in the early 1980s was a huge shock to the rap world, recalling the violent deaths of two other giants, Tupac Shakur, murdered in Las Vegas in 1996, and The Notorious B.I.G., killed in Los Angeles in 1997.

His funeral in Allen Cathedral had been grandiose, bringing together thousands of people and the elite of rap of the era, from LL Cool J to Queen Latifah, including Public Enemy's Chuck D and his colleagues in Run DMC, Joseph “Run” Simmons and Darryl “DMC” McDaniels.

The trio is often considered the first great rap group, with their hits It's Like That, It& #x27;s Tricky and the cover of the Aerosmith song Walk This Way, recorded with the famous rock group .

The trial revealed a darker side of Jam Master Jay, whose real name is Jason Mizell, who ;#x27;was involved in drug trafficking to support his lifestyle and that of his loved ones, while Run DMC was losing its notoriety, according to prosecutors.

Sentencing will take place at a later date.