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Nearly 200 years after the fatal shooting of rap star Jam Master Jay of Run-DMC, a man pleaded guilty in court Monday to a slaying that baffled investigators for decades.
Jay Bryant pleaded guilty to murder, telling a judge he helped other people break into a recording studio to ambush the DJ, born Jason Mizell.
“I knew a gun was going to be used to shoot Jason Mizell,” Bryant told the magistrate. “I knew what I was doing was wrong and it was a crime.”
Bryant’s admission brings some closure — but also adds complexity — to the knotty case.
Bryant did not call them by the names of the other people they acted with. A jury in 2024 convicted two other men, Karl Jordan Jr. and Ronald Washington, however the judge cleared Jordan.
Washington also appealed his conviction. His attorney, Susan Kellman, noted Monday that the evidence against Bryant included his DNA on a hat at the scene of the crime and witness testimony that Bryant once said he fired the gun himself. Jordan’s attorneys declined to comment.
Bryant, 52, is expected to face between 15 and 20 years in prison for murder and unrelated drug and gun charges, which he previously pleaded not guilty to. No sentencing date has been set.
He gave a thumbs up to someone in the audience before leaving the court. The person declined to comment afterward, as did Bryant’s attorneys.
Prosecutors had no immediate comment.
Mizell handled the turntables in Run-DMC, the sad trio he formed with friends Darryl “DMC” McDaniels and Joseph Simmons, aka DJ Run and Rev. Run.
In the 1980s hits like It is deceptive, My Adidas and Aerosmith’s version Go This Waythey helped rap climb the ladder from urban genre to mainstream popularity. Run-DMC was the first rap group with gold and platinum selling albums, a Rolling Stone cover and a video on MTV. The trio was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2009. Mizell also mentored other hip-hop artists, including a young 50 Cent.
At the age of 37, Mizell was shot in his studio in the Queens neighborhood where he had grown up. His death in October 2002 followed the late 1990s murders of two other hip-hop legends, Tupac Shakur and the Notorious BIG Authorities battled all three charges for years.
Jordan and Washington – Mizell’s godson and her old friend, respectively – were arrested in 2020. Prosecutors said the men were upset about losing a piece of the failed cocaine deal Mizell had tried to arrange.
Although Run-DMC is known for its anti-drug message, prosecutors and trial witnesses said the DJ turned to cocaine dealing in his later years to pay off his debts and continue giving to friends after the music money dried up.
According to prosecutors and trial witnesses, Jordan shot Mizell while Washington blocked the door during the shooting and ordered one of Mizell’s assistants to go downstairs. Both men denied the allegations. Jordan’s lawyers say he was at his girlfriend’s house when the DJ was shot, while Washington’s lawyers say he had no motive to kill his famous friend who helped him financially.
Bryant’s DNA was found on the hat
Nearly three years after their arrest, prosecutors brought Bryant into their murder picture.
Saying Bryant’s DNA was found on a hat in the studio and that he was seen entering the building, prosecutors charged him with murder. He had already been arrested for drug and gun charges.
Bryant knew someone like Jordan and Washington, according to testimony at their trial. But unlike them, Bryant had little, if any, connection to Mizell.
Bryant said in court Monday that he was connected to people involved in the cocaine deal with DJ and that he “helped them kill Jason Mizell by helping them get into the recording studio.”
Bryant’s uncle said his nephew told him he shot Mizell after the singer took the gun. But no one else testified that Bryant even entered the studio.
Instead, prosecutors argued that Bryant was put in the studio building and opened the back fire door, allowing Washington and Jordan to enter without shouting and tell Mizell they were coming.
Although neither Jordan’s nor Washington’s DNA was found, then-prosecutor Artie McConnell suggested that one of them accidentally left it behind, and that Bryant had simply touched it some time earlier.
