Trial begins for 2 males accused of rap pioneer Jam Grasp Jay’s homicide By Reuters

By Jonathan Allen

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Two males accused of killing rap pioneer Jam Grasp Jay in a 2002 dispute over a drug deal will face a jury in a federal courtroom in New York Metropolis on Monday as opening statements start of their homicide trial.

Ronald Washington, 59, and Karl Jordan Jr., 40, have pleaded not responsible to federal fees of homicide whereas engaged in drug trafficking for the loss of life of Jam Grasp Jay in his New York recording studio, probably the most notorious killings in rap historical past.

Jam Grasp Jay, the stage title of Jason Mizell, helped form hip-hop together with his Run-DMC bandmates within the Eighties. He was 37 when he was shot useless on Oct. 20, 2002, shortly after buying 10lb of cocaine from a Midwest distributor, in response to the federal indictment.

If convicted within the U.S. District Courtroom in Brooklyn, Washington and Jordan face a most sentence of life in jail, and a compulsory minimal of not less than 20 years. The U.S. Division of Justice informed the courtroom it might not search the loss of life penalty.

Final Could, a 3rd defendant, Jay Bryant, was additionally indicted for taking part within the homicide. He is because of face a separate trial in 2026.

Washington has beforehand been convicted of violent felonies, together with drug-trafficking crimes, not less than seven occasions since 1982, and has spent years in jail. Jordan has no grownup felony document, prosecutors say.

Each males are from the identical Queens neighborhood in New York Metropolis as Jam Grasp Jay. Washington was offended that Jam Grasp Jay had determined to chop him out of a deal to promote cocaine the musician had obtained in Maryland, in response to the indictment, and plotted with Jordan and Bryant to kill him.

In line with the prosecutors’ account, they arrived with weapons on the rapper’s studio and demanded one other man current lie on the ground. Jordan fired two photographs at Jam Grasp Jay at shut vary, hitting him as soon as within the head and killing him. The second shot hit the person who they’d ordered to lie down within the leg. All three males fled.