Sophia Michaels
Two decades after Run-DMC’s Jam Master Jay was killed, his alleged killers will finally go to trial.
On Monday, a federal judge rejected the defense’s request to dismiss the case and set a trial date for early next year, according to Billboard. lawyers for the two men — — claimed that the men and asked the court to dismiss the case
After the two men — Karl Jordan Jr. and Ronald Washington — were charged back in 2020 for the alleged murder, their lawyers argued that prosecutors waited too long to charge them, which caused crucial evidence to be lost. Their lawyers said that cell phone records that would support their alibis were no longer available and that key witnesses would not remember details in the case. But the federal judge in charge of the case said Monday that their arguments were too “speculative” to serve as a cause for dismissal.
“Conspicuously absent from Jordan’s argument is any factual support for his claim,” Judge LaShann DeArcy Hall wrote, per Billboard. “In the absence of any factual support, the court has no idea what Jordan believes the phone records contain, how they could conceivably contradict the Government’s evidence, and how those contradictions could conceivably demonstrate that Jordan did not commit the crime.”
Back in May, Jordan Jr. asked for a separate trial or for his murder indictment to be dropped. Jordan’s lawyers said because of the delay, it’s now too late for Jordan to obtain “beeper records” and other “objective evidence” to support his alibi, and the location of a possibly critical eyewitness is no longer known.
Co-defendant Washington was previously quoted in Playboy saying that he had witnessed Jordan Jr. fleeing the scene of the murder after hearing three shots. He referred to Jordan and Jordan’s father as “Little D” and “Big D” while speaking to Playboy from “behind bars” in 2003.
“I’m positive it was Little D. I looked him right in his face before he ran off,” Washington is quoted as telling writer Frank Owen. “Little D told me, ‘My pops wasn’t supposed to shoot Jay. That wasn’t supposed to happen,’” he said.
Washington previously filed a motion to dismiss his indictment because “the government waited 18 years” to file charges, causing a “prejudicial impact” on “his ability to defend against the charges.”
According to the prosecutors, Jordan Jr. shot Jay twice at close range, killing the DJ, born Jason Mizell, with an execution-style bullet to the head.
