One of the men convicted in the 2002 murder of Run-DMC star Jam Master Jay in New York City was stabbed at a Brooklyn lockup, according to two sources familiar with the matter.
Karl Jordan Jr., who was found guilty on murder charges in Feb. 2024, has been held at the Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) while awaiting sentencing. That's where he was stabbed in an attack just after 1 p.m. Saturday, sources said.
Jordan suffered serious injuries in the attack, but sources described his condition as "stable."
The Federal Bureau of Prisons said multiple people being held at MDC suffered minor injuries after a fight broke out, while two suffered injuries that required outside medical treatment. The BOP did not name any of the injured, but sources said Jordan was one of those who was hurt.
No MDC employees were injured as a result of the fight, the BOP said. No further information was provided. An attorney for Jordan declined to comment on the matter.
The two police officers who responded to the murder of Hip Hop legend Jam Master Jay testified in court. Erica Byfield reporting.
Jordan, a godson of Jam Master Jay, was one of two men found guilty of killing the DJ at a New York City recording studio. Ronald Washington, a childhood friend of the Jam Master Jay, was also found guilty on charges of murder while engaged in a narcotics trafficking conspiracy and firearm-related murder for killing the pioneering DJ over what prosecutors characterized as revenge for a failed drug deal.
After the verdict was announced, Washington stood up and yelled at the jury "y'all just killed some innocent people. Get me out of here."
As he was being led out of the courtroom following the verdict, Jordan told his family he — then a bit of chaos ensued. Family members started yelling at the jury "did they listen to the facts...y'all know he didn't do it" as there was pushing and shouting. U.S. Marshals told the family they had to leave.
Jordan's mother told NBC New York at the time that she thought witnesses had been given money to lie on the stand.
"I feel like I know that the feds, the government, paid those witnesses to lie on my son. My son had nothing to do with this crime, nothing at all," said Jacqueline Gonzalez, Jordan's mother.
The killing of Jam Master Jay
Born Jason Mizell, Jam Master Jay worked the turntables in Run-DMC as the group helped hip-hop break into the pop music mainstream in the 1980s with such hits as “It’s Tricky” and a fresh take on Aerosmith’s “Walk This Way.” Mizell later started a record label, opened a studio in his old Queens neighborhood and helped bring along other talent, including rapper 50 Cent.
Mizell was gunned down in his studio in front of witnesses on Oct. 30, 2002.
Like the slayings of rap icons Tupac Shakur and the Notorious B.I.G. in the late 1990s, the Mizell case remained open for years. Authorities were deluged with tips, rumors and theories but struggled to get witnesses to open up.
Jordan, 41, was the famous DJ’s godson. Washington, 59, was an old friend who was bunking at the home of the DJ’s sister. Both men were arrested in 2020 and pleaded not guilty.
The men’s names, or at least their nicknames, have been floated for decades in connection to the case. Authorities publicly named Washington as a suspect in 2007. He, meanwhile, told Playboy magazine in 2003 he’d been outside the studio, heard the shots and saw “Little D” — one of Jordan’s monikers — racing out of the building.
Prosecutors contend that the two men turned on the rap star over a cocaine deal.
Mizell had been part of Run-DMC’s anti-drug message, delivered through a public service announcement and such lyrics as “we are not thugs / we don’t use drugs.” But according to prosecutors and trial testimony, he racked up debts after the group’s heyday and moonlighted as a cocaine middleman to cover his bills and habitual generosity to friends.
“He was a man who got involved in the drug game to take care of the people who depended on him,” McConnell said in his summation.
Prosecution witnesses testified that in Mizell’s final months, he had a plan to acquire 10 kilograms of cocaine and sell it through Jordan, Washington and a Baltimore-based dealer. But the Baltimore connection refused to work with Washington, according to testimony.
According to prosecutors, Washington and Jordan went after Mizell for the sake of vengeance, greed and jealousy.
Two eyewitnesses, former studio aide Uriel Rincon and former Mizell business manager Lydia High, testified that Washington blocked the door and ordered High to lie on the floor. She said he brandished a gun.
Two key witness take took the stand on the fourth day of Jam Master Jay’s murder trial. Myles Miller reporting.
Rincon identified Jordan as the man who approached Mizell and exchanged a friendly greeting moments before shots rang out and one bullet wounded Rincon himself. Three other people, including a teenage singer who had just stopped by the studio to tout her demo tape, testified that they were in an adjoining room and heard but didn’t see what happened.
Other witnesses testified that Washington and Jordan made incriminating statements about the Mizell killing after it happened.
Neither Washington nor Jordan testified. Their lawyers questioned key prosecution witnesses’ credibility and their memories of the long-ago shooting, noting that some initially denied they could identify the attackers or had heard who they were.
The witnesses said they had been overwhelmed, loath to pass along secondhand information or scared for their lives.
The trial shed limited light on a third defendant, Jay Bryant, who was charged after prosecutors said his DNA was found on a hat at the scene. They assert that he slipped into the studio building and let Washington and Jordan in through fire door in the back so they could avoid buzzing up.
Bryant has pleaded not guilty and is set to go on trial in early 2026.
NBC New York's Erica Byfield and Jennifer Peltz of the Associated Press contributed to this report.
