Murder trial of Jam Master Jay’s alleged killers rescheduled to February 2023

The murder trial of Jam Master Jay has been pushed back to next year.

Originally set to start this week, on 22nd September, the trial of the two men charged in the 2002 killing of RUN-DMC’s Jason Mizell will now start in February 2023, Billboard reports.

Karl Jordan, Jr. and Ronald Washington were charged in 2020 with murder but have been attempting to get the case thrown out over the long gap in time. They argued they will not be able to gather evidence, such as now-two-decade-old phone records, in support of their alibis. Judge LaShann DeArcy Hall said that was too “speculative” to dismiss the case.

“Conspicuously absent from Jordan’s argument is any factual support for his claim,” Judge Hall wrote. “In the absence of any factual support, the court has no idea what Jordan believes the phone records contain, how they could conceivably contradict the Government’s evidence, and how those contradictions could conceivably demonstrate that Jordan did not commit the crime… That memories will dim, witnesses become inaccessible, and evidence be lost are not in themselves enough to demonstrate that defendants cannot receive a fair trial.”

Jam Master Jay, one-third of legendary New York hip-hop group RUN-DMC, was killed in his studio Hollis, Queens, on 30th October 2002. The case remained cold, although Washington, who is currently in federal prison for robbery, was suspected as early as 2008. Federal prosecutors charged Jordan and Washington in August 2020, alleging the killing was “payback after a failed cocaine deal”.