{"id":10491,"date":"2026-04-28T02:34:39","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T02:34:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/accomplice-pleads-guilty-in-run-dmc-dj-killing\/"},"modified":"2026-04-28T02:34:39","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T02:34:39","slug":"accomplice-pleads-guilty-in-run-dmc-dj-killing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/accomplice-pleads-guilty-in-run-dmc-dj-killing\/","title":{"rendered":"Accomplice Pleads Guilty in Run-DMC DJ Killing"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n\tA third man has pleaded guilty to acting as an accomplice to the long-unsolved murder of Run-DMC\u2019s Jam Master Jay at a Queens, New York recording studio in 2002.<\/p>\n

\n\tAccording to federal prosecutors, 52-year-old Jay Bryant copped to the criminal charge on Monday (April 27), three years after he was charged with helping orchestrate the killing of the famed DJ (Jay Mizell). The feds claim Bryant opened the studio\u2019s locked fire escape door so that Karl Jordan Jr. and Ronald Washington could enter undetected and allegedly shoot Mizell.<\/p>\n

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\n\tProsecutors say Bryant, who has a prior criminal record, faces at least 15 years in prison at his upcoming sentencing due to federal mandatory minimum laws. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cMore than two decades after the cold-blooded, execution-style killing of Mr. Mizell, an exhaustive investigation revealed Bryant\u2019s role and today he finally admitted his guilt,\u201d said Joseph Nocella Jr.<\/strong>, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, in a statement Monday. \u201cThe prosecutors in our office and our law enforcement partners never give up, no matter how long it takes, in the pursuit of justice for the victim and the victim\u2019s family.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBryant\u2019s defense lawyer did not immediately return a request for comment.<\/p>\n

\n\tProsecutors claim Bryant was \u201cintegral\u201d to the shocking killing of Mizell at age 37, which allegedly stemmed from a soured cocaine dealing operation between Mizell, his godson Jordan and his childhood friend Washington. The feds say that after Bryant let the other two men into the Queens building, Washington guarded the studio door while Jordan shot Mizell in the head at close range.<\/p>\n

\n\tJordan and Washington went to trial in 2024, arguing that they were innocent and that Bryant was the sole perpetrator. Both men were found guilty. But nearly two years later, a judge took the unusual step of overturning Jordan\u2019s conviction after determining that there was no evidence of a motive for the then-18-year-old to kill his godfather.<\/p>\n

\n\tProsecutors are now appealing to reinstate Jordan\u2019s conviction, insisting in a filing earlier this month that the verdict was supported by dozens of witnesses who saw or were told about the murder. Washington\u2019s conviction remains intact.<\/p>\n


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A third man has pleaded guilty to acting as an accomplice to the long-unsolved murder of Run-DMC\u2019s Jam Master Jay at a Queens, New York recording studio in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10492,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7838,2493,4781,2492,7839],"class_list":["post-10491","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lawyers","tag-accomplice","tag-guilty","tag-killing","tag-pleads","tag-rundmc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10491","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10491"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10491\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10492"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}