Two Men Found Guilty In 2002 Murder Of Run-DMC's Jam Master Jay

More than 20 years after pioneering Run-DMC DJ Jam Master Jay was fatally shot in his recording studio, two men have been found guilty of his murder. On Tuesday, a Brooklyn, NY jury convicted Jay’s childhood friend Ronald Washington and Jay’s godson Karl Jordan Jr. guilty of the crime that was one of hip-hop’s greatest mysteries for decades.

“Y’all just killed some innocent people. Get me outta here,” Washington said following the verdict, at which point CNN reports that a fight nearly broke out. Jordan, meanwhile, gazed back at his supporters and said, “I love you,” before they began shouting and both men were rushed from the courtroom. Jordan, 40, and Washington, 59, each face 20 years to life in prison.

Prosecutors argued that on the night of October 30th, 2002, Washington and Jordan went to see Jay—born Jason Mizell—at his recording studio in Jamaica, Queens. An eyewitness testified that he saw Washington and Jordan come in armed and that Jordan shot Jam Master Jay in the head. The state said that the dispute was over a drug deal worth over $200,000, alleging that Jay was involved in the sale of large quantities of cocaine between the 1990s and 2002.

“It’s about greed. It’s about money. It’s about jealousy,” Assistant US Attorney Artie McConnell said in the prosecution’s closing arguments. “And it’s about the actions of two men, Karl Jordan Jr., and Ronald Washington, that the evidence proves are killers.”

The state has also charged a third man, Jay Bryant, with murder while engaged in narcotics trafficking and firearm-related murder—the same charges Washington and Jordan were convicted of. Bryant will go to trial separately in January 2026 for allegedly allowing Washington and Jordan to enter the studio through a fire escape door. Washington and Jordan’s defense attorneys argued that Bryant was the real killer and pointed to a hat with his DNA found next to Jay’s body as well as the fact that he was the only defendant seen on a security camera.

“Jay Bryant is literally reasonable doubt in this case,” Jordan’s attorney Michael Hueston said, with Washington’s attorney Susan Kellman adding, “This is an attempt to make a mockery of the judicial system. They know who killed Jam Master Jay. They know it was Jay Bryant. They have no case against anybody except Jay Bryant.”

Prosecutors though provided ample witnesses to their involvement in the crime, including a former studio aid and Jay’s business manager who testified that Washington blocked the door while Jordan went into the studio, approached Jay, and shot him. Three other people—including a teenage singer who was at the studio to drop off a demo tape—testified that they heard the interaction from the adjoining room, though they didn’t see it.

“It’s no mystery why it took years to indict and arrest the defendants,” top Brooklyn federal prosecutor Breon Peace told reporters after Tuesday’s verdict. He said witnesses “were terrified that they would be retaliated against if they cooperated with law enforcement.”

The trial painted Jam Master Jay in a different light than his public persona. Though Run-DMC appeared in an anti-drug PSA and recorded anti-crime songs like “Pause”, prosecutors stated that when the group’s popularity declined in the 1990s and into the 2000s Jay began middle-manning large cocaine deals. Witnesses testified that in his final months, Jay was arranging to sell ten kilograms of cocaine through Jordan, Washington, and a Baltimore-based dealer, however, the dealer refused to work with Washington.

“[Jay] was a man who got involved in the drug game to take care of the people who depended on him,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Artie McConnell said in his summation.

Jam Master Jay served as the backbeat for Run-DMC’s revolutionary career that brought hip-hop into mainstream culture. With a chart-topping remix of “Walk This Way” featuring Aerosmith along with hits “It’s Tricky”, “It’s Like That”, “My Adidas”, and “King of Rock”, Jay, Joseph “Run” Simmons, and Darryl “DMC” McDaniels brought the emerging hip-hop genre to a national and ultimately worldwide audience. The group served as a pillar of the golden age of hip-hop and burst through doors alongside Slick Rick, Public Enemy, Beastie Boys, De La Soul, and many more, paving the way for the gangsta rap takeover of the 1990s.