Jam Master Jay of Run-DMC’s 2002 slaying moved again on Monday in federal court when Jay Bryant entered a guilty plea, admitting he played a role in the ambush that investigators say ended with the shooting death of Jason Mizell.
Bryant pleaded guilty to a federal murder charge, according to the federal magistrate court appearance reported by the Associated Press. In court, Bryant told the judge that he helped other people get into a Queens recording studio to ambush Mizell and that he knew in advance that a gun would be used.
“I knew a gun was going to be used to shoot Jason Mizell,” Bryant told the federal magistrate, adding, “I knew that what I was doing was wrong and a crime.” He did not name the other people with whom he acted.
Prosecutors said Bryant’s plea brings together evidence that helped investigators keep trying for years to identify how the ambush unfolded. The AP reported that prosecutors had added Bryant to the murder indictment nearly three years after prosecutors arrested two other defendants in the case, citing DNA found on a hat at the studio and testimony that he was seen entering the building. Bryant had already been jailed on separate drug and gun charges before the murder plea.
Bryant, who is 52, is expected to face a sentence between 15 and 20 years in prison for the killing and the unrelated drug and gun charges to which he pleaded earlier. No sentencing date has been set. After the plea, Bryant gave a thumbs-up to someone in the courtroom, according to the report; that person declined to comment, as did Bryant’s attorneys, and prosecutors had no immediate comment.
The case has been complicated not only by the long gap between the 2002 killing and the courtroom developments, but also by the shifting status of other convictions tied to the shooting. A jury in 2024 convicted Karl Jordan Jr. and Ronald Washington, but the AP reported that a judge subsequently cleared Jordan, and Washington has challenged his conviction through his lawyer.
Washington’s lawyer, Susan Kellman, argued in court Monday that evidence against Bryant included Bryant’s DNA on a hat at the crime scene and witness testimony that Bryant once claimed he fired the gun himself. Kellman’s position was reported alongside the fact that Jordan’s lawyers declined to comment.
The AP report also described how prosecutors, at trial, had portrayed different roles for the other defendants and how those roles were disputed. Prosecutors contended that Jordan shot Mizell while Washington blocked the door during the shooting and ordered an aide of Mizell to get on the ground. Both Jordan and Washington denied prosecutors’ allegations.
Prosecutors also portrayed Bryant as having been enlisted to get into the studio building and open a back fire door so that Washington and Jordan could enter without alerting Mizell. In Bryant’s guilty-plea statement, he said he was connected with people 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 AP report said Bryant’s account diverged from other testimony in the case. His uncle has said Bryant told him Bryant shot Mizell after the artist reached for a gun, but the report said no other testimony indicated Bryant entered the studio. It also noted that while neither Jordan’s nor Washington’s DNA was on the cap tied to the studio evidence, a former prosecutor, Artie McConnell, had suggested one of them could have accidentally left DNA behind and that Bryant might have touched it beforehand.
Mizell was the turntable performer for Run-DMC, the pathbreaking trio he formed with Darryl “DMC” McDaniels and Joseph Simmons, known as DJ Run and Rev. Run. The group’s 1980s hits included “It’s Tricky,” “My Adidas,” and a version of Aerosmith’s “Walk This Way,” and Run-DMC became one of the first rap groups to reach mainstream success, including gold- and platinum-selling albums and later inductions into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.