Judge throws out conviction of man found guilty of killing Run-DMC star

Run-DMC’s Jason Mizell, known as Jam Master Jay (G Paul Burnett/AP)

A US judge has voided the conviction of one of the two men found guilty of the 2002 killing of Run-DMC star Jam Master Jay, ruling that there was not 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, US District Judge LaShann DeArcy Hall granted Karl Jordan Jr an acquittal on the murder charges.

An eyewitness testified that he saw Jordan shoot the pioneering DJ – his own godfather – in his Queens recording studio on October 30 2002.

But Jordan’s lawyers had argued that the evidence did not support prosecutors’ claims 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 lawyers, 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 worked the turntables in Run-DMC 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.