BROOKLYN (CN) — Prosecutors delivered closing arguments in the Jam Master Jay murder trial Tuesday, asking jurors convict two men of a crime that went unsolved for nearly two decades.
“This case is not complicated, it’s simple, it is clear,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Artie McConnell said. “It’s about greed, it’s about money, it’s about jealousy.”
The late Run-DMC deejay, whose real name is Jason “Jay” Mizell,” was killed in his Queens recording studio on Oct. 30, 2002. Prosecutors say Karl Jordan Jr. and Ronald Washington conspired in the hit after a drug deal went sour.
McConnell argued that the evidence and witness testimony placed Washington and Jordan in the studio when Mizell was murdered — and their involvement in a drug conspiracy supplied a motive.
According to federal prosecutors, Mizell was in the process of “setting up shop” in Baltimore for Washington and Jordan to sell cocaine out of. They were expected to earn “hundreds of thousands of dollars” from this deal.
“This was not a one-time arrangement. This was ‘setting up shop’ for a long-term arrangement,” McConnell said.
After Mizell’s murder, McConnell said the defendants expected the focus on the case to die down.
They thought the “spotlight would fade," McConnell said. "And for twenty years, they were right."
McConnell asked jurors to trust testimony from two eyewitnesses, Lydia High and Tony Rincon, countering defense attorneys’ arguments that their memories were unreliable.
"It may have been 20 years, but they have not forgotten,” McConnell said.
As McConnell wrapped up his closing arguments, he urged the jury to enter a guilty verdict.
“Twenty years is a long time to wait for justice. Twenty years is long enough. Don’t let this go on another minute,” McConnell said.
Before defense attorneys rested their case Tuesday, they called a single witness — Geoffrey Loftus, an emeritus professor of human memory at the University of Washington — who testified that, over time, a person’s memory may be affected by information they learn after an event occurs.
Loftus added that stress can also impact a person’s ability to remember events accurately.
“People’s mental functioning including the ability to memorize appearance of people around them is diminished,” Loftus testified.
Neither High nor Rincon immediately told the police what they witnessed on the night of Mizell’s death. Both said they were terrified of what might happen if they did.
In 2003, High told law enforcement she saw Washington the night of the murder. Rincon didn't talk about what he witnessed until 2016.
“They were afraid. They didn’t want to be involved. They moved out of New York to get away from all of this,” McConnell said.
If found guilty, the defendants face a minimum of 20 years and a maximum of life in prison. Attorney General Merrick B. Garland directed the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District not to seek the death penalty.
A third man, Jay Bryant, was also charged in connection with the murder last year but will be tried separately. Prosecutors position him as an accomplice to the murder because he was able to go undetected.
“While the defendants knew him… those in Mizell’s circle did not,” McConnell said. “None of them recognized this guy, and that was the point.”
Tanya Davis, who worked as a receptionist at a financial services company in the same building as Mizell’s studio, said in previous testimony that she saw a man slip into the building behind High, who was Mizell’s business manager at the time.
The man, McConnell says, was Bryant, who walked past both the financial services company and the recording studio to let Jordan and Washington in without being noticed.
“Jay Bryant let them in. They came in the fire escape. They came out the fire escape,” McConnell said.
Defense attorneys for Washington and Jordan are expected to deliver their closing arguments Wednesday.
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