Oh damn! Did you hear about this? A US judge has overturned the conviction of Karl Jordan Jr., one of the two men found guilty in the 2002 killing of Run-DMC legend Jam Master Jay.
Jay, born Jason Mizell, was shot in the head at age 37 inside his Queens recording studio. Prosecutors alleged that Jordan and Ronald Washington targeted Mizell after being cut out of a drug deal said to be worth $200,000.
Both men were charged with murder in 2020 and initially pleaded not guilty.
On Friday (December 19), US District Judge LaShann DeArcy Hall granted Jordan’s motion for acquittal, ruling that prosecutors failed to prove he was motivated by the alleged drug deal. The judge also conditionally denied Jordan’s request for a new trial.
In contrast, Washington’s conviction remains intact. Judge Hall denied his motions for acquittal and a new trial, citing evidence that a jury could reasonably conclude Washington sought retaliation after being excluded from a potentially lucrative Baltimore deal.
“The jury had no evidence from which it could reasonably infer that Jordan sought to retaliate,” the judge said, according to NBC News. “There was none.”
The trial, which began last year, revisited a case that haunted investigators for nearly two decades. Prosecutors framed the killing as an act of greed and revenge, while the defence argued that the government’s theory failed to account for alternative suspects.
An eyewitness testified during the trial, recounting Mizell’s final moments and identifying a suspect. Defence attorneys also pointed to a third individual, Jay Bryant, suggesting he may have played a larger role than prosecutors acknowledged.
How crazy is this? More than 20 years after Jam Master Jay’s death, the case remains legally active, with one conviction standing and another now erased.
