The third suspect responsible for the death of Run-DMC’s Jam Master Jay has officially been charged with his murder.
On Tuesday, the federal court in the Eastern District of New York charged Jay Bryant, 49, with the murder of the hip-hop legend, whose birth name is Jason “Jay” Mizell.
In August 2020, two other men, Karl Jordan Jr., and Ronald Washington, were charged with his murder following a bad drug deal on Oct. 30, 2002.
According to AP, Bryant’s lawyer, César de Castro, just recently learned of his client’s charges.
Court documents say that Bryant was already behind bars for an unrelated drug-trafficking charge at the time of the indictment.
“Securing an indictment in a secret grand jury, applying an extremely low burden of proof, is one thing. Proving it at trial is another matter,” Castro said.
A document submitted to the court on Tuesday claims that on October 30, 2002, at 7:30 p.m., Bryant, Jordan, and Washington entered the studio.
According to reports, Washington ordered the person inside to get on the ground while pointing the gun at them. Jordan then approached Mizell and fired two close-range shots. The rapper was fatally shot in the head by one bullet and a witness was hit in the leg by the other.
Prosecutors say that all three suspects then fled the scene.
Officials say that witnesses saw Bryant entering the building before bullets were fired, and a piece of clothing he left behind contained his DNA.
According to reports, Bryant admitted to an associate “that he was in-fact the shooter.”
The prosecution did note that “The evidence does not support Bryant’s claim that he was the shooter, and the evidence at trial will prove that Jordan was the individual that shot Mizell.”
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