Jam Master Jay Murder Case: Alleged Killer’s Conviction Overturned by Judge

A Brooklyn federal judge on Friday (Dec. 19) overturned the murder convictions of one of the two alleged killers of Run-DMC’s Jam Master Jay, ruling the government’s decades-delayed case against him was “impermissibly speculative.”

Nearly two years after a jury found Karl Jordan, Jr. guilty on two federal murder counts for the rap icon’s long-unsolved slaying, Judge LaShann DeArcy Hall granted Jordan’s motion for acquittal — an extraordinary move that sets aside the jury’s verdict.

In doing so, the judge said there was “simply no evidence” for Jordan’s alleged motive for the 2002 shooting: payback over a botched cocaine deal.

“After a review of the trial record, the court finds that the government’s theories of Jordan’s drug-related motive to kill Mizell or drug offense-related motive to use a firearm are impermissibly speculative and just conjecture,” the judge wrote. “Jordan has met the heavy burden [under federal rules] to be granted a judgment of acquittal.”

The judge refused, however, to grant a similar reprieve to Ronald Washington, Jay’s other alleged killer, who was convicted alongside Jordan last year. In Washington’s case, the judge said prosecutors had shown jurors enough evidence to support the guilty verdict.

“A reasonable jury could conclude Washington sought to murder Mizell in reprisal for Mizell’s failure to ensure Washington’s promised involvement in the Baltimore deal, as well as to send a message to other co-conspirators,” Judge DeArcy Hall wrote in her ruling.

In a statement to Billboard, Jordan’s attorney Michael Hueston said, “On behalf of Mr. Jordan and his family, today’s decision brings a measure of solace as they approach the holiday season.”

Unlike a traditional not-guilty verdict, Jordan’s acquittal can be appealed by federal prosecutors; he’s also still facing a separate trial on a slew of drug-related charges that were split from the murder counts. A spokesman for the prosecution declined to comment.

Washington’s lawyer, meanwhile, vowed to challenge the ruling against her client, telling Billboard that she was “looking forward to the appeal.”

Run-DMC — Jason “Jam Master Jay” Mizell, Joseph “Rev. Run” Simmons and Darryl “DMC” McDaniels — is widely credited as one of the most influential acts in hip-hop history. The trio’s 1985 release, King of Rock, was hip-hop’s first platinum album, and the group’s 1986 cover of Aerosmith’s “Walk This Way” reached No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Jay’s shocking killing, on Oct. 30, 2002, had long been one of hip-hop’s famous cold cases, joining the unsolved murders of Tupac Shakur and The Notorious B.I.G. Though witnesses were in the room when the murder happened and police generated a number of leads, no charges were filed until August 2020, when prosecutors finally unveiled the case against Washington and Jordan.

Over a three-week trial in early 2024, the feds told jurors that Jay had turned to the drug trade as Run-DMC’s popularity had waned. They argued that Washington, a childhood friend, and Jordan, Jay’s godson and neighbor, had helped Jay sell the drugs, but eventually plotted his murder after he allegedly cut them out of a major deal.

After hearing from more than 30 witnesses, jurors convicted both men on two counts: murder while engaged in narcotics trafficking and firearm-related murder. At the time, U.S. Attorney Breon Peace said Washington and Jordan had “finally been held accountable for their cold-blooded crime driven by greed and revenge.”

But in her ruling on Friday, Judge DeArcy Hall said the government had not proven key elements of those specific crimes when it came to Jordan — specifically, a connection between the alleged drug plot and the 2002 killing.

“The record in this case is bereft of such an ‘obvious link,’ or any link, between the failed Baltimore deal and Jordan’s decision to participate in Mizell’s murder two months later,” the judge wrote. “There is simply no evidence of a personal dispute between Jordan and Mizell, or any suggestion that Jordan felt slighted by his role in the conspiracy.”

Jay Bryant, a third man allegedly involved in Jay’s killing, who prosecutors charged in 2023, is scheduled to go to trial in May. During the 2024 trial, attorneys for both Jordan and Washington argued that Bryant was the true alleged shooter.