A federal grand jury has indicted two men in the long-unsolved murder of Jam Master Jay, the pioneering DJ of Run-DMC who was killed in 2002, prosecutors said Monday.
Jam Master Jay, born Jason Mizell, was fatally shot by a mysterious masked man at a recording studio in the Queens neighborhood of Jamaica when he was 37.
The murder has been a mystery for years and a $60,000 reward was offered to anyone who has information regarding the crime but no one came forward.
Seth D. DuCharme, Acting United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, said law enforcement never gave up on solving the cold case.
“It was important to us then and remains extremely important to us now to bring justice for the victim, his family, friends and the community that cared so much about those events,” he said.
Nearly 18 years later, the US Attorney for the Eastern District of New York unsealed criminal indictment. According to CNN, the indictment alleges that Karl Jordan Jr. and Ronald Washington conspired to kill Jam Master Jay in retaliation for a drug dispute.
Ronald Washington was reportedly living on Jam Master Jay’s couch, in his home days before his death, and was listed as a possible suspect or witness back in 2007. He is currently serving a federal prison sentence for a string of robberies, allegedly while he was on the run from police after Jam Master Jay’s death.
CBS News reports:
In court papers filed at the time, prosecutors alleged that Washington waved a handgun around and ordered people in Jay’s Queens recording studio to lie on the ground while another man killed him on Oct. 30, 2002.
Karl Jordan Jr. was to be arraigned for the murder and other charges on today, Monday afternoon (Aug. 17th), and Ronald Washington will be arraigned later this week.
Jam Master Jay’s studio has since been transformed into a hall of fame area to honor his life and work. He left behind a wife and three children.
