{"id":211877,"date":"2026-04-27T22:48:15","date_gmt":"2026-04-27T22:48:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/211877\/"},"modified":"2026-04-27T22:48:15","modified_gmt":"2026-04-27T22:48:15","slug":"man-pleads-guilty-in-the-2002-killing-of-run-dmcs-jam-master-jay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/211877\/","title":{"rendered":"Man pleads guilty in the 2002 killing of Run-DMC\u2019s Jam Master Jay"},"content":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Nearly a quarter-century after rap star Jam Master Jay of Run-DMC<\/a> was shot to death, a man admitted in court Monday to a role in a killing that stymied investigators for decades.<\/p>\n

Jay Bryant pleaded guilty to a federal murder charge, telling a judge that he helped other people get into a recording studio to ambush the DJ, born Jason Mizell.<\/p>\n

\"FILEFILE – Run-D.M.C.’s Jason Mizell, Jam-Master Jay, poses with teenagers gathered at New York’s Madison Square Garden, Oct. 7, 1986, in New York City.(G. Paul Burnett | AP Photo\/G. Paul Burnett, File)<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew a gun was going to be used to shoot Jason Mizell,\u201d Bryant told a federal magistrate. \u201cI knew that what I was doing was wrong and a crime.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bryant\u2019s admission brings some closure \u2014 but also adds complexity \u2014 to a knotty case.<\/p>\n

Bryant didn\u2019t name the other people with whom he acted. But a jury in 2024 convicted two other men<\/a>, Karl Jordan Jr. and Ronald Washington, yet a judge subsequently cleared Jordan<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Washington has also challenged his conviction. His lawyer, Susan Kellman, noted Monday that evidence against Bryant included his DNA on a hat at the crime scene and witness testimony that Bryant once claimed he fired the gun himself. Jordan\u2019s lawyers declined to comment.<\/p>\n

Bryant, 52, is expected to face a sentence somewhere between 15 and 20 years in prison for killing plus unrelated drug and gun charges to which he pleaded guilty earlier. No sentencing date has been set.<\/p>\n

He gave a thumbs-up to someone in the audience before leaving court. The person declined to comment afterward, as did Bryant\u2019s attorneys.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors had no immediate comment.<\/p>\n

Mizell handled the turntables in Run-DMC, a pathbreaking trio he formed with friends Darryl \u201cDMC\u201d McDaniels and Joseph Simmons, known as DJ Run and Rev. Run.<\/p>\n

With such 1980s hits as \u201cIt\u2019s Tricky,\u201d \u201cMy Adidas,\u201d and a version of Aerosmith\u2019s \u201cWalk This Way,\u201d they helped rap climb the ladder from an urban genre into mainstream popularity. Run-DMC was the first rap group with gold- and platinum-selling albums, a Rolling Stone cover, and a video on MTV. The trio was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame<\/a> in 2009. Mizell also mentored other hip-hop artists, including a young 50 Cent<\/a>.<\/p>\n

At 37, Mizell was gunned down in his studio in the Queens neighborhood where he\u2019d grown up. His October 2002 death followed the late 1990s killings of two other hip-hop greats, Tupac Shakur and the Notorious B.I.G.<\/a> Authorities struggled with all three cases for years.<\/p>\n

Jordan and Washington \u2014 Mizell\u2019s godson and old friend, respectively \u2014 were arrested in 2020<\/a>. Prosecutors said the men were bitter about losing out on a piece of a failed cocaine deal that Mizell had tried to line up. Though Run-DMC was known for its anti-drug message<\/a>, prosecutors and a trial witness said the DJ moonlighted in the cocaine trade<\/a> in his later years to cover his bills and keep being generous to friends after music money dried up somewhat.<\/p>\n

According to prosecutors and trial witnesses, Jordan shot Mizell while Washington blocked the door during the shooting and ordered one of Mizell\u2019s aides to get on the ground. Both men denied the allegations. Jordan\u2019s attorneys said he was at his girlfriend\u2019s home when the DJ was shot, and Washington\u2019s lawyers said he had no incentive to kill the famous friend who helped him financially.<\/p>\n

Nearly three years after their arrests, prosecutors abruptly brought Bryant into their picture of the killing.<\/p>\n

Saying that Bryant\u2019s DNA had been found<\/a> on a hat in the studio and that he\u2019d been seen entering the building, prosecutors added him to the murder indictment. He was already jailed on the drug and gun case.<\/p>\n

Bryant knew someone in common with Jordan and Washington, according to testimony at their trial. But unlike them, Bryant had little, if any, connection to Mizell.<\/p>\n

Bryant said in court Monday that he was connected with people who were involved in a cocaine deal with the DJ and that he \u201chelped them kill Jason Mizell by helping them gain entry to the recording studio.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bryant\u2019s uncle has said his nephew told him he shot Mizell after the artist reached for a gun. But no one else testified that Bryant even entered the studio.<\/p>\n

Instead, prosecutors contended that Bryant was enlisted to make his way into the studio building and open a back fire door, allowing Washington and Jordan to walk in without buzzing up and alerting Mizell they were coming.<\/p>\n

While neither Jordan\u2019s nor Washington\u2019s DNA was on the cap, then-prosecutor Artie McConnell suggested one of them had accidentally left it behind, and that Bryant had simply touched it at some point beforehand.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Nearly a quarter-century after rap star Jam Master Jay of Run-DMC was shot to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":211878,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[7220,75312,83674,14511,259,9,24,55,54,56,83734,33372,83679,1096],"class_list":{"0":"post-211877","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-guilty","9":"tag-jam-master-jay","10":"tag-jay-bryant","11":"tag-killing","12":"tag-murder","13":"tag-new-york","14":"tag-new-york-city","15":"tag-new-york-city-headlines","16":"tag-new-york-city-news","17":"tag-ny","18":"tag-rap-group","19":"tag-rapper","20":"tag-run-dmc","21":"tag-shooting"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211877","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=211877"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211877\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/211878"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=211877"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=211877"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=211877"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}