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A judge's ruling to acquit the man who was convicted of killing Jam Master Jay has been appealed.
According to a report AllHipHop published on Tuesday, January 13, federal prosecutors went to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and filed a motion to appeal the acquittal of Karl Jordan Jr. Jordan, the godson of Jam Master Jay, and his co-defendant Ronald “Tinard” Washington were found guilty of one count of firearm-related murder and one count of murder while engaged in narcotics trafficking. Both men were convicted of killing Run-D.M.C.'s DJ, born Jason Mizell, at his studio in Queens in 2002.
Jordan caught a break last year after Judge LaShann DeArcy Hall ruled in favor of Jordan's attorneys after they argued that prosecutors did not present sufficient evidence that connected him to an obvious motive for murder. Judge DeArcy's ruling erased Jordan’s convictions, which prompted the appeal.
The trial began in January 2024, which is four years after Jordan and Washington were initially hit with murder charges. Throughout the trial, witnesses who previously feared retaliation decided to come forward and testify about what they saw on October 30, 2002. Prosecutors argued that Jordan and Washington plotted the murder after they discovered Mizell was allegedly going to cut them out of a major cocaine deal because a drug dealer, Ralph Mullgrav, refused to work with Washington.
During Jordan and Washington's trial, defense attorneys for both defendants argued a third man Jay Bryant, who was charged with Mizell's murder in 2023, was the true gunman. They also emphasized there was no physical evidence that implicated their clients. Bryant's trial is still pending.