A new date for Jam Master Jay’s murder trial has been set.
The case looked set to go ahead this month but a federal judge today (September 19) rejected the defence’s request to dismiss the case and instead set a trial date for next February, reports Billboard.
The Run-DMC rapper (real name Jason Mizell) was fatally shot inside his Jamaica, Queens recording studio at the age of 37 in 2002.
It was a cold case until 2020 when police, the FBI and other law enforcement bodies
indicted two men, Ronald Washington and Karl Jordan Jr., on charges of murder.
After the two men were charged, their lawyers argued that prosecutors waited too long to charge them, which caused crucial evidence to be lost.
Their lawyers claim that mobile records that would support their alibis were no longer available and that key witnesses would not remember details in the case.
But the federal judge LaShann DeArcy Hall has now said that their arguments were too “speculative” to serve as a cause for dismissal.
“Conspicuously absent from Jordan’s argument is any factual support for his claim,” the judge added. “In the absence of any factual support, the court has no idea what Jordan believes the phone records contain, how they could conceivably contradict the Government’s evidence, and how those contradictions could conceivably demonstrate that Jordan did not commit the crime.”
Washington is currently serving a federal prison sentence for robbery, while Jordan was taken into custody in August 2020.
Jam Master Jay, along with Joseph Run Simmons and Darryl ‘DMC’ McDaniel, was part of Run-DMC, who are best known for their hits ‘It’s Tricky’, ‘Christmas In Hollis’ and their Aerosmith remake collaboration ‘Walk This Way’.
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