When a judge was ready to sentence R. Kelly for sexually exploiting children, Breon Peace, the federal government’s top prosecutor in Brooklyn, was in the courtroom’s front row. Peace, who oversees more than 160 attorneys and many times that number of cases, can’t go to many hearings personally. This one …
Read More »
A s TJ and Jesse Mizell stroll through the Amsterdam Houses — the community of brick buildings for low-income households on Manhattan’s Upper West Side where they grew up — residents play basketball and stand around chatting. It’s an unusually sunny March day, and it feels good to be outside. …
Read More »
A jury found two men guilty of murdering the pioneering and world-famous DJ Jam Master Jay in 2002 at the conclusion of a federal trial on Tuesday. The verdict ends decades of speculation about why Jay, whose real name was Jason Mizell, had been killed. The jurors delivered the decision …
Read More »
Ronald Washington, one of the two defendants standing trial for allegedly killing Jam Master Jay, chuckled in court on Wednesday when his attorney, Susan Kellman, invoked Harry Potter in her closing arguments. The moment came as she discussed the prosecution’s theory that Washington and the other defendant, Karl Jordan Jr., …
Read More »
The trial for two men accused of killing Run-DMC’s pioneering DJ in 2002 began its denouement in court on Tuesday as the prosecution made its closing arguments. In summarizing the government’s case over two hours, prosecutor Artie McConnell decried the “brutality,” “arrogance,” and “audacity” of the murder of Jam Master …
Read More »
The ex-girlfriend of one of the defendants indicted in the 2002 death of Jam Master Jay told a Brooklyn jury on Thursday that the defendant “basically” confessed to killing the Run-DMC DJ, according to The Associated Press. The woman, Daynia McDonald, claimed that Ronald Washington brought her to the recording …
Read More »
Immediately after Jam Master Jay was killed in 2002, the recording studio where he had been hanging out became a scene of chaos. Randy Allen, a childhood friend of the DJ, whose legal name was Jason Mizell, gave testimony on Tuesday at the Brooklyn trial where two men stand accused …
Read More »
A woman who worked as business manager for Jam Master Jay‘s label at the time of his death gave emotional testimony in the Brooklyn trial for the two men indicted for killing him in 2002. Lydia High was crying and often paused to collect herself Monday while telling the jury …
Read More »
Jam Master Jay “was nervous about something” days before he was killed, according to witness testimony on Thursday at the Brooklyn trial for two men accused of killing the Run-D.M.C. DJ in 2002. The Associated Press reports that Stephon Watford, a cousin and business associate of the late DJ (whose …
Read More »
Jam Master Jay exclaimed “Oh shit” just before he was shot and killed in October 2002, according to testimony given in court on Wednesday. Uriel “Tony” Rincon, a friend and business associate of the late DJ (whose real name was Jason Mizell) explained his recollection of what happened when assailants …
Read More »