FILE -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. (AP Photo/G. Paul Burnett, File)
FILE -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. (AP Photo/G. Paul Burnett, File)
NEW YORK (AP) — A judge Friday voided the conviction of one of the two men found guilty of the 2002 killing of Run-D.M.C. star Jam Master Jay, ruling that there wasn't enough evidence that the man had a motive to kill the hip-hop luminary.
Nearly two years after a jury delivered its verdict, the decision came from the same Brooklyn federal judge who presided over the trial. In Friday's ruling, U.S. District Judge LaShann DeArcy Hall granted Karl Jordan Jr. an acquittal on the murder charges.
An eyewitness the pioneering DJ — his own godfather — in his Queens recording studio on Oct. 30, 2002. But Jordan's lawyers had argued that the evidence didn't support that he killed Jam Master Jay, born Jason Mizell, as revenge for a failed drug deal.
“We are really happy for Mr. Jordan and his family that justice was served,†one of his attorneys, John Diaz, said in an email. Jordan had not yet been sentenced on the murder charges, but remains behind bars awaiting trial on drug charges from many years after the killing.
A message seeking comment was sent to prosecutors.
Separately, the judge denied co-defendant Ronald Washington's bid for an acquittal or a new trial.
Jam Master Jay, born Jason Mizell, worked the turntables in Run-D.M.C. as the group helped hip-hop break into the pop music mainstream in the 1980s with such hits as “It’s Tricky†and a fresh take on Aerosmith’s “Walk This Way.â€
