Federal prosecutors aiming to get justice for the late hip-hop legend Jam Master Jay gave opening statements at trial on Monday, 20 years after the Run-DMC member was gunned down in his Queens recording studio, Courthouse News reports. In October 2002, Jason “Jay” Mizell was shot in the head and killed. Prosecutors say that Karl Jordan Jr. and Ronald Washington conspired to kill him after they were cut out of a drug deal. Attorneys for Jordan and Washington said this case largely relies on memory from 20 years ago, which they say is unreliable. “This case will be about 10 seconds, 21 years ago,” Washington's attorney Ezra Spilke said during his open statement. “The whole case revolves around a blink of an eye, a generation ago.”
“It was a brazen crime,” U.S. attorney Miranda Gonzalez told the court Monday. “The defendants had killed a world-famous musician in front of people who knew him and who they knew.” During opening statements, prosecutors described Mizell as a pillar of the community who was betrayed by his friends. “Even as Run-DMC rose to fame, you’ll hear that Jason never forgot his roots,” Gonzalez said, noting that he would lend money to friends, let people use his studio for free and allow them to sleep at his family’s house if they didn’t have anywhere to go. But when Run-DMC’s profits began to wane, Mizell turned to the drug trade to make money. A third man, Jay Bryant, was also charged in connection with the murder last year but will be tried separately.
Opmerkingen