Conviction voided for man discovered responsible in Jam Grasp Jay killing – NBC New York

A choose Friday voided the conviction of one of many two males discovered responsible of the 2002 killing of Run-D.M.C. star Jam Grasp Jay, ruling that there wasn’t sufficient proof that the person had a motive to kill the hip-hop luminary.

The reversal, which got here because the choose upheld the opposite man’s conviction, marked one other beautiful and confounding flip in one of many hip-hop world’s most elusive instances. It stymied investigators for almost 20 years earlier than two arrests have been made in 2020, and authorities had hailed the 2024 convictions as lastly getting justice for one in all rap’s pioneers.

Practically two years after the jury verdict, the choice got here from the identical Brooklyn federal choose who presided over the trial. In Friday’s ruling, U.S. District Choose LaShann DeArcy Corridor granted Karl Jordan Jr. an acquittal on the homicide costs.

An eyewitness testified that he noticed Jordan shoot the DJ — his personal godfather — in his Queens recording studio on Oct. 30, 2002. However Jordan’s legal professionals had argued that the proof did not assist prosecutors’ claims that he killed Jam Grasp Jay, born Jason Mizell, as revenge for a failed drug deal.

“We’re actually pleased for Mr. Jordan and his household that justice was served,” one in all his attorneys, John Diaz, mentioned in an electronic mail. Jordan had not but been sentenced on the homicide costs, however stays behind bars awaiting trial on drug costs from a few years after the killing.

Prosecutors mentioned they have been reviewing the ruling.

Individually, the choose denied co-defendant Ronald Washington’s bid for an acquittal or a brand new trial. Certainly one of his legal professionals, Susan Kellman, famous that he can pursue additional appeals.

Mizell labored the turntables in Run-D.M.C. because the group helped hip-hop break into the pop music mainstream within the Nineteen Eighties with such hits as “It’s Difficult” and a contemporary tackle Aerosmith’s “Stroll This Manner.”