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Ronald Washington, 59, and Karl Jordan Jr., 40, have pleaded not
guilty to federal charges of murder while engaged in drug
trafficking for the death of Jam Master Jay in his New York
recording studio, one of the most infamous killings in rap
history.
Jam Master Jay, the stage name of Jason Mizell, helped shape
hip-hop with his Run-DMC bandmates in the 1980s. He was 37 when
he was shot dead on Oct. 20, 2002, shortly after acquiring 10lb
of cocaine from a Midwest distributor, according to the federal
indictment.
If convicted in the U.S. District Court in Brooklyn, Washington
and Jordan face a maximum sentence of life in prison, and a
mandatory minimum of at least 20 years. The U.S. Department of
Justice told the court it would not seek the death penalty.
Last May, a third defendant, Jay Bryant, was also indicted for
participating in the murder. He is due to face a separate trial
in 2026.
Washington has previously been convicted of violent felonies,
including drug-trafficking crimes, at least seven times since
1982, and has spent years in prison. Jordan has no adult
criminal record, prosecutors say.
Both men are from the same Queens neighborhood in New York City
as Jam Master Jay. Washington was angry that Jam Master Jay had
decided to cut him out of a deal to sell cocaine the musician
had obtained in Maryland, according to the indictment, and
plotted with Jordan and Bryant to kill him.
According to the prosecutors' account, they arrived with guns at
the rapper's studio and demanded another man present lie on the
floor. Jordan fired two shots at Jam Master Jay at close range,
hitting him once in the head and killing him. The second shot
hit the man who they had ordered to lie down in the leg. All
three men fled.
(Reporting by Jonathan Allen in New York; Editing by Edwina
Gibbs)
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