GhLinks Media
The long-awaited verdict has been reached in the case of Jam Master Jay’s murder, a crime that shook the hip-hop world back in 2002. Ronald Washington, 59, and Karl Jordan Jr., 40, have been found guilty by a jury for the infamous murder of the Run-DMC DJ.
The tragic incident took place in the lounge section of Jay’s recording studio in Queens, New York, and was allegedly linked to a drug deal gone sour.
Jam Master Jay’s untimely death left a profound impact on the music industry, as he was a pioneering figure in hip-hop and a member of the influential group Run-DMC.
Finally, after more than two decades, justice has been served in one of the most notorious unsolved murders of a hip-hop artist.
During the trial, prosecutors revealed that the cash-strapped DJ, real name Jason Mizell, turned to drug dealing on the side to make ends meet.
Prosecutors said that at the time, Mizell was moving drugs for cash, quietly acting as a middleman between cocaine suppliers and street dealers for at least six years before his death.
Mizell, who was the master DJ scratching records and dropping beats for Joseph “Run” Simmons and Darryl “DMC” McDaniels in the background, struggled to make a living after the prominent hip-hop group’s fame died down in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
“The money wasn’t coming in,” prosecutor Miranda Gonzalez told jurors in the federal trial in Brooklyn.
Ironically, Mizell once even recorded a “Say No to Drugs” public service announcement with his Run-DMC bandmates.
Michael Rapley, one of the five people present in the Queens studio at the time of the shooting, told the jury that Mizell lent money to “everybody that was around him” and even paid for his mother’s funeral.
The legendary DJ tried to keep his drug dealing lifestyle under wraps, but closer to his death, he began carrying a firearm, Stephon Watford, Mizell’s cousin, testified.
