Judge nixes conviction of one of two men found guilty of killing Run-DMC’s Jam Master Jay

NEW YORK (AP) — A judge Friday voided the conviction of one of the two men found guilty of the 2002 killing of Run-D.M.C. star Jam Master Jay, ruling that there wasn’t enough evidence that the man had a motive to kill the hip-hop luminary.

Nearly two years after a jury delivered its verdict, the decision came from the same Brooklyn federal judge who presided over the trial. In Friday’s ruling, U.S. District Judge LaShann DeArcy Hall granted Karl Jordan Jr. an acquittal on the murder charges.

An eyewitness testified that he saw Jordan shoot the pioneering DJ — his own godfather — in his Queens recording studio on Oct. 30, 2002. But Jordan’s lawyers had argued that the evidence didn’t support prosecutors’ claims that he killed Jam Master Jay, born Jason Mizell, as revenge for a failed drug deal.

“We are really happy for Mr. Jordan and his family that justice was served,” one of his attorneys, John Diaz, said in an email. Jordan had not yet been sentenced on the murder charges, but remains behind bars awaiting trial on drug charges from many years after the killing.

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