Federal prosecutors said Monday they have charged two men in connection with the 18-year-old unsolved murder of Run-DMC DJ Jam Master Jay, while suggesting …
Federal prosecutors said Monday they have charged two men in connection with the 18-year-old unsolved murder of Run-DMC DJ Jam Master Jay, while suggesting the artist, celebrated for his anti-drug stance, may have been ambushed over a cocaine deal. The suspects in the nearly two-decade-old murder, one of New York’s most enduring cold cases, were identified as Ronald Washington and Karl Jordan Jr. Washington is currently serving a federal prison sentence stemming from a string of robberies he committed while on the run from police after Jay’s 2002 murder. Jordan is also charged with engaging in an alleged cocaine distribution conspiracy in 2017. “This is a case that has been around for a long time,” acting U. S. Attorney Seth DuCharme said at a news conference in New York announcing the charges, according to The Associated Press. Five years after the crime, Washington – who had reportedly been living on a couch at Jay’s home in the days before the murder – was named as a suspected accomplice, but was never convicted. According to prosecutors at the time, Washington „pointed his gun at those present in the studio, ordered them to get on the ground and provided cover for his associate to shoot and kill Jason Mizell,“ Jam Master Jay’s real name. “They walked in and murdered him in cold blood,” DuCharme said. Police identified at least four people in the studio with Mizell, including the two gunmen.
