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BROOKLYN, N.Y. (PIX11) — About a week after Run-DMC’s Jam Master Jay was gunned down in his recording studio back in 2002, the alleged killer showed up at his funeral to confront a man who survived his gunfire, the hip-hop star's friend testified in court on Wednesday.
“He was probing to see if I did see him,” Tony Rincon said during his testimony in Brooklyn federal court at the trial of Karl Jordan, Jr., 40, and Ronald Washington, 59. The defendants are accused in the fatal shooting of Jason Mizell, better known as Jam Master Jay.
Jordan allegedly shot Mizell point-blank in the head while he was on a couch playing video games in his Jamaica, Queens recording studio at around 7:30 p.m. on Oct. 30, 2002, prosecutors said. Rincon was shot in the left leg above the knee and Lydia High was found hysterical in the studio, according to authorities and the witness.
Rincon testified Jordan approached him and his mother in the cemetery at Mizell’s service and asked if he saw who did it.
“I said no,” Rincon recalled answering. “I felt uncomfortable.”
Rincon choked up while detailing the fateful night, telling the jury he saw the studio front door open before spotting Jordan wearing a hoodie walking toward Mizell and giving him half a handshake before hearing a couple of gunshots. Rincon said he heard Mizell say "Oh s---" before shots rang out.
“I see Jay just fall back," he said, adding the hip-hop star fell on Jordan, who shrugged him off.
Rincon said he then checked on Mizell, shaking him and asking if he was OK.
“Can you talk?” he asked his friend and mentor. “He was not responding.”
Mizell died instantly. Investigators said they found Mizell lying on the floor motionless with a pool of blood by his head. The bullet burned the head and skin on his head, prosecutors said.
Rincon testified Washington stayed at the door and yelled at High to stay down. After the incident, he said he saw Jordan's face and the tattoo on his neck. He then saw Jordan and Washington run out of the studio, he said.
Mizell's friend and business partner Randy Allen was in the control room at the time of the shooting and came out and grabbed Mizell's gun and chased after the defendants, Rincon said.
The police showed up shortly after the shooting but Rincon stayed tight-lipped about what he saw.
"I didn't tell them who did the shooting," he said. "I was scared.. surprised who I saw and what happened."
Rincon admitted he lied to law enforcement multiple times until he identified Jordan as the gunman during grand jury testimony in 2017, he said.
When asked why he came forward 15 years later, Rincon said Mizell’s wife and children deserved closure.
“They should know what happened,” he said.
The defendants are charged with murder while engaged in narcotics trafficking and firearm-related murder, prosecutors said. Jordan faces several other drug distribution charges.
Prosecutors allege Mizell was helping the defendants financially by looping them into his drug-dealing business after the group was no longer in the limelight. But Mizell had cut Jordan and Washington out of a $200,000 cocaine deal in Baltimore, which allegedly led to the fatal encounter, authorities said.
The trial resumes on Thursday.
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