In 2002, Jam Master Jay (aka Jason Mizell), the DJ in legendary hip hop group Run DMC, was murdered at his Queens, New York recording studio. Almost twenty years later, city and federal authorities charged Ronald Washington and Karl Jordan Jr., longtime suspects in the case, with killing the musician. From the New York Times:
According to court papers filed on Monday, Mr. Washington and Mr. Jordan, both of them armed, broke into Mr. Mizell's studio on Merrick Boulevard in Jamaica, Queens, at about 7:30 p.m on Oct. 30, 2002. As Mr. Washington forced someone inside the studio to the ground at gunpoint, the papers say, Mr. Jordan fired a bullet into Mr. Mizell's head, killing him almost instantly.
"They walked in and murdered him in cold blood," [acting US attorney in Brooklyn Seth D.] DuCharme said.
Prosecutors said that the two men had "executed" Mr. Mizell after he sought to exclude them from "a multi-kilogram, multistate narcotics transaction." In July 2002, just months before the murder, court papers say, Mr. Mizell had received about 10 kilos of cocaine "on consignment" from a supplier in Maryland.
Mr. Washington and Mr. Jordan were supposed to have been his partners in the deal, the papers say, but after a dispute — which was not described — Mr. Mizell threatened to cut them out.
"There was a beef — it didn't go as planned," one official said.
