Nearly 25 years after hip hop legend Jam Master Jay of Run-DMC was shot to death, a man admitted in court he assisted the killing that stymied investigators for decades.
Jay Bryant pleaded guilty to a federal murder charge Monday, telling a judge that he helped other people get into a recording studio to ambush the DJ, born Jason Mizell.
‘I knew a gun was going to be used to shoot Jason Mizell,’ Bryant told a federal magistrate. ‘I knew that what I was doing was wrong and a crime.’
Bryant’s admission brings some closure, but also adds complexity, to a knotty case.
Bryant didn’t name the other people with whom he acted. But a jury in 2024 convicted two other men, Karl Jordan Jr. and Ronald Washington, yet a judge subsequently cleared Jordan.
Washington has also challenged his conviction. His lawyer, Susan Kellman, noted Monday that evidence against Bryant included his DNA on a hat at the crime scene and witness testimony that Bryant once claimed he fired the gun himself.
‘More than two decades after the cold-blooded, execution-style killing of Mr. Mizell, an exhaustive investigation revealed Bryant’s role and today he finally admitted his guilt,’ US Attorney Joseph Nocella said.
‘The 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’s family.’
Nearly a quarter-century after rap star Jam Master Jay of Run-DMC was shot to death, a third suspect, Jay Bryant, has pleaded guilty to helping facilitate the 2002 ‘execution-style’ murder
Jay Bryant pleaded guilty to a federal murder charge, telling a judge that he helped other people get into a recording studio to ambush the DJ, born Jason Mizell
Police (pictured at the scene in 2002) identified at least four people in the studio with Mizell, including the two armed gunmen. The city and Mizell’s friends offered more than $60,000 in reward money, but witnesses refused to come forward and the case languished
Jordan’s lawyers declined to comment.
A woman, Tana Davis, placed Bryant at the crime scene. She said she observed a man matching his description walk through the building and later heard gun shots coming from the studio.
Bryant, 52, is expected to face a sentence somewhere between 15 and 20 years in prison for the killing plus unrelated drug and gun charges, to which he pleaded guilty earlier. No sentencing date has been set.
He gave a thumbs-up to someone in the public gallery before leaving court. The person declined to comment afterward, as did Bryant’s attorneys.
Prosecutors had no immediate comment.
Mizell handled the turntables in Run-DMC, a pathbreaking trio he formed with friends Darryl ‘DMC’ McDaniels and Joseph Simmons, known as DJ Run and Rev. Run.
With such 1980s hits as ‘It´s Tricky,’ ‘My Adidas,’ and a version of Aerosmith’s ‘Walk This Way,’ they helped rap climb the ladder from an urban genre into mainstream popularity.
Mizell performs on stage. Mizell was 37 and a father-of-three when he was shot dead after allegedly acquiring 10 kilograms of cocaine from a Midwest distributor
Mizell was in his recording studio in Hollis, the Queens neighborhood in eastern New York City when he was shot dead
Mizell worked the turntables alongside rappers Joe ‘Run’ Simmons and Darryl ‘DMC’ McDaniels as the group helped bring hip-hop into the mainstream in the 1980s with hits like ‘It’s Tricky’ and a remake of Aerosmith´s ‘Walk This Way’ off the best-selling 1986 album ‘Raising Hell’
Run-DMC was the first rap group with gold- and platinum-selling albums, a Rolling Stone cover, and a video on MTV. The trio was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2009. Mizell also mentored other hip-hop artists, including a young 50 Cent.
At 37, Mizell was gunned down in his studio in the Queens neighborhood where he’d grown up.
His October 2002 death followed the late 1990s killings of two other hip-hop greats, Tupac Shakur and the Notorious B.I.G.
Authorities struggled with all three cases for years.
Jordan and Washington – Mizell’s godson and old friend, respectively – were arrested in 2020 . Prosecutors said the men were bitter about losing out on a piece of a failed cocaine deal that Mizell had tried to line up.
Though Run-DMC was known for its anti-drug message , prosecutors and a trial witness said the DJ moonlighted in the cocaine trade in his later years to cover his bills and keep being generous to friends after music money dried up somewhat.
The extent of Bryant’s actual role in Mizell’s murder has been unclear.
Prosecutors had argued that Jordan shot Mizell while Washington had blocked the studio’s door during the shooting and ordered one of Mizell’s aides to get on the ground. It was Bryant, meanwhile, who granted the men entry to the building.
Both men denied the allegations.
Raymond Bryant, Bryant’s uncle, then testified during the other men’s criminal trial stating how his nephew had confessed to the shooting.
‘He said he did it,’ Raymond said. Defense lawyers for both Washington and Jordan also claimed that Bryant was the alleged shooter.
Jam Master Jay – born Jason Mizell – was part of the legendary hip-hop group Run-DMC. He was shot and killed inside a recording studio in Queens in 2022
Mizell shot to stardom in the 80s as a member of 1980s hip-hop sensation Run-DMC (pictured in 1985) with Joseph ‘Run’ Simmons and Darryl ‘DMC’ McDaniel
Jordan’s attorneys said he was at his girlfriend’s home when the DJ was shot, and Washington’s lawyers said he had no incentive to kill the famous friend who helped him financially.
Nearly three years after their arrests, prosecutors abruptly brought Bryant into their picture of the killing.
Saying that Bryant’s DNA had been found on a hat in the studio and that he’d been seen entering the building, prosecutors added him to the murder indictment. He was already jailed on the drug and gun case.
Bryant knew someone in common with Jordan and Washington, according to testimony at their trial. But unlike them, Bryant had little, if any, connection to Mizell.
Bryant said in court Monday that he was connected with people who were involved in a cocaine deal with the DJ and that he ‘helped them kill Jason Mizell by helping them gain entry to the recording studio.’
The exterior of the studio location in Queens where Jam Master Jay was shot and killed in 2002
The stairs leading to the studio where the rap superstar was killed. Though he was shot in 2002, it wasn’t until 2020 that arrests were announced
Prosecutors say the men entered a Queens recording studio, upset over being cut out of the drug deal, and Mizell was shit at point-blank range
The day before Mizell was killed he had just returned from Milwaukee, where he had met with rapper 50 Cent, a witness recalled
A jury in 2024 convicted two other men, Karl Jordan Jr. and Ronald Washington, yet a judge subsequently cleared Jordan.Karl Jordan Jr. (left), now 42,
Bryant´s uncle has said his nephew told him he shot Mizell after the artist reached for a gun. But no one else testified that Bryant even entered the studio.
Instead, prosecutors contended that Bryant was enlisted to make his way into the studio building and open a back fire door, allowing Washington and Jordan to walk in without buzzing up and alerting Mizell they were coming.
While neither Jordan’s nor Washington’s DNA was on the cap, then-prosecutor Artie McConnell suggested one of them had accidentally left it behind, and that Bryant had simply touched it at some point beforehand.
