Judge nixes conviction of one of two men found guilty of killing Run-DMC's Jam Master Jay

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NEW YORK (AP) — A judge Friday voided the conviction of one of the two men found guilty of the 2002 killing of Run-D.M.C. star Jam Master Jay, ruling that there wasn't enough evidence that the man had a motive to kill the hip-hop luminary.

The reversal, which came as the judge upheld the other man's conviction, marked another stunning and confounding turn in one of the hip-hop world’s most elusive cases. It stymied investigators for nearly two decades before two arrests were made in 2020, and authorities had hailed the 2024 convictions as finally getting justice for one of rap's pioneers.

Nearly two years after the jury verdict, the decision came from the same Brooklyn federal judge who presided over the trial. In Friday's ruling, U.S. District Judge LaShann DeArcy Hall granted Karl Jordan Jr. an acquittal on the murder charges.

An eyewitness testified that he saw Jordan shoot the DJ — his own godfather — in his Queens recording studio on Oct. 30, 2002. But Jordan's lawyers had argued that the evidence didn't support prosecutors' claims that he killed Jam Master Jay, born Jason Mizell, as revenge for a failed drug deal.

“We are really happy for Mr. Jordan and his family that justice was served,” one of his attorneys, John Diaz, said in an email. Jordan had not yet been sentenced on the murder charges, but remains behind bars awaiting trial on drug charges from many years after the killing.

Prosecutors said they were reviewing the ruling.

Separately, the judge denied co-defendant Ronald Washington's bid for an acquittal or a new trial. One of his lawyers, Susan Kellman, noted that he can pursue further appeals.

Mizell worked the turntables in Run-D.M.C. as the group helped hip-hop break into the pop music mainstream in the 1980s with such hits as “It’s Tricky” and a fresh take on Aerosmith’s “Walk This Way.”