A federal judge overturned the conviction of a man who was found guilty of the 2002 murder of Run-D.M.C. star Jam Master Jay on Friday.
Ruling that there wasn’t enough evidence that the man had a motive to kill the hip-hop luminary, Karl Jordan Jr. was acquitted on the murder charges.
Nearly two years after a jury delivered its verdict, the decision came from the same Brooklyn federal judge who presided over the trial.
An eyewitness testified that he saw Jordan shoot the pioneering DJ — his own godfather — in his Queens recording studio on Oct. 30, 2002. But Jordan’s lawyers have long 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.
A message seeking comment was sent to prosecutors.
Separately, U.S. District Judge LaShann DeArcy Hall denied co-defendant Ronald Washington’s bid for an acquittal or a new trial.
Jam Master Jay, born Jason 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.”
His killing became one of the hip-hop world’s most elusive cases.
