NEW YORK (AP) 鈥� Nearly a quarter-century after rap star was shot to death, a man admitted in court Monday to a role in a killing that stymied investigators for decades.
Jay Bryant pleaded guilty to a federal murder charge, telling a judge that he helped other people get into a recording studio to ambush the DJ, born Jason Mizell.
鈥淚 knew a gun was going to be used to shoot Jason Mizell,鈥� Bryant told a federal magistrate. 鈥淚 knew that what I was doing was wrong and a crime.鈥�
Bryant鈥檚 admission brings some closure 鈥� but also adds complexity 鈥� to a knotty case.
Bryant didn鈥檛 name the other people with whom he acted. But a jury in 2024 , Karl Jordan Jr. and Ronald Washington, yet a judge .
Washington has also challenged his conviction. His lawyer, Susan Kellman, noted Monday that evidence against Bryant included his DNA on a hat at the crime scene and witness testimony that Bryant once claimed he fired the gun himself. Jordan’s lawyers declined to comment.
Bryant, 52, is expected to face a sentence somewhere between 15 and 20 years in prison for the killing plus unrelated drug and gun charges, to which he pleaded guilty earlier. No sentencing date has been set.
He gave a thumbs-up to someone in the audience before leaving court. The person declined to comment afterward, as did Bryant’s attorneys.
Prosecutors had no immediate comment.
Mizell handled the turntables in Run-DMC, a pathbreaking trio he formed with friends Darryl 鈥淒MC鈥� McDaniels and Joseph Simmons, known as DJ Run and Rev. Run.
With such 1980s hits as 鈥淚t鈥檚 Tricky,鈥� 鈥淢y Adidas,鈥� and a version of Aerosmith鈥檚 鈥淲alk This Way,鈥� they helped rap climb the ladder from an urban genre into 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 in 2009. Mizell also mentored other hip-hop artists, including a young .
At 37, Mizell was gunned down in his studio in the Queens neighborhood where he鈥檇 grown up. His October 2002 death followed the late 1990s killings of two other hip-hop greats, Authorities struggled with all three cases for years.
Jordan and Washington 鈥� Mizell鈥檚 godson and old friend, respectively 鈥� were . Prosecutors said the men were bitter about losing out on a piece of a failed cocaine deal that Mizell had tried to line up. Though Run-DMC was , prosecutors and a trial witness said the DJ in his later years to cover his bills and keep being generous to friends after music money dried up somewhat.
According to prosecutors and trial witnesses, Jordan shot Mizell while Washington blocked the door during the shooting and ordered one of Mizell鈥檚 aides to get on the ground. Both men denied the allegations. Jordan鈥檚 attorneys said he was at his girlfriend鈥檚 home when the DJ was shot, and Washington鈥檚 lawyers said he had no incentive to kill the famous friend who helped him financially.
Nearly three years after their arrests, prosecutors abruptly brought Bryant into their picture of the killing.
Saying that on a hat in the studio and that he鈥檇 been seen entering the building, prosecutors added him to the murder indictment. He was already jailed on the drug and gun case.
Bryant knew someone in common with 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 with people who were 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.鈥�
Bryant鈥檚 uncle has said his nephew told him he shot Mizell after the artist reached for a gun. But no one else testified that Bryant even entered the studio.
Instead, prosecutors contended that Bryant was enlisted to make his way into the studio building and open a back fire door, allowing Washington and Jordan to walk in without buzzing up and alerting Mizell they were coming.
While neither Jordan鈥檚 nor Washington鈥檚 DNA was on the cap, then-prosecutor Artie McConnell suggested one of them had accidentally left it behind, and that Bryant had simply touched it at some point beforehand.
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