A man has pleaded guilty to a charge of murder more than 20 years after the fatal ambush shooting of Run-DMC’s Jam Master Jay.
Jay Bryant, 52, changed his plea on Monday to guilty, telling a judge that he helped others get into a building to ambush and kill Jay Mizell, the pioneering rap star who was known as Jam Master Jay.
Prosecutors said that Bryant’s DNA was found on a hat inside the recording studio where Mizell was shot in the head in 2002. Bryant originally pleaded not guilty when he was indicted in 2023.
In 2024, two others were convicted in the case – Mizell’s godson Karl Jordan Jr and childhood friend Ronald Washington.
Prosecutors argued in court that Jordan and Washington planned the “execution” killing out of revenge after being cut out of a drug deal worth nearly $200,000. They argued the killing was “motivated by greed and by revenge”, but Jordan and Washington’s lawyers have denied being involved.
A judge overturned Jordan’s conviction last year, finding prosecutors failed to prove his motive in the case. Washington has similarly challenged his conviction.
Bryant had been accused of acting as an accomplice to the pair in the killing by helping them slip into the building that housed Mizell’s recording studio in Queens, New York.
Prosecutors charged that he opened a back fire door to allow Jordan and Washington entry and avoid buzzing into the studio so they could ambush Mizell. He initially denied the charges.
But in court on Monday, Bryant acknowledged to a federal magistrate in New York that he knew a gun would be used to shoot the 37-year-old rapper that day and apologised, US media reported.
He did not name others who were involved in the deejay’s killing.
The 2002 shooting sent shock waves through the music industry. The influential act he formed with Joseph “Run” Simmons and Darryl “DMC” McDaniel – famous for 1980s tracks such as It’s Tricky, It’s Like That and Aerosmith collaboration Walk This Way – disbanded after his death.
The case went unsolved for about two decades until federal prosecutors filed charges against the three men.
Bryant had initially pleaded not guilty in the case but changed that plea on Monday. He faces 15 to 20 years in prison over the killing and unrelated drug and gun charges.
Court documents filed last Thursday indicated that Bryant planned to change his plea and that his lawyers were negotiating a deal with federal prosecutors, the BBC’s US media partner CBS News reported.
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