Jay Bryant, one of three men the Department of Justice indicted for the 2002 murder of Run-DMC DJ Jam Master Jay, is expected to change his plea to guilty, according to The Associated Press. Bryant initially pleaded not guilty when indicted in 2023, though the AP reported in 2024 that Bryant was considering a guilty plea.
Documents entered in court on Thursday show that the man’s lawyers and prosecutors have been negotiating a deal, though the terms and just what Bryant would be admitting to aren’t yet known. The date that Bryant could enter a guilty plea has not yet been set. The AP notes that the possibility of a plea is still preliminary, giving room for Bryant to stick with the not guilty plea if he chooses. Bryant had a May 4 trial date, though it has been postponed.
A rep for the DOJ had no comment. Bryant’s lawyer did not immediately respond to Rolling Stone’s request for comment.
In the 2023 indictment, prosecutors alleged that Bryant had conspired to kill Jam Master Jay, whose real name was Jason Mizell, with Ronald Washington and Karl Jordan Jr. as part of a narcotics deal. Washington and Jordan were both tried and found guilty of Mizell’s murder “while engaged in a narcotics trafficking conspiracy and firearm-related murder” in 2024, though Judge LaShann DeArcy Hall overturned Jordan’s guilty verdict in 2025 because, in her opinion, U.S. Attorneys didn’t prove Jordan’s motive. At the time of Bryant’s indictment regarding Mizell, he was awaiting a trial for an unrelated drug charge.
At Washington and Jordan’s trial, prosecutors claimed Bryant entered the Queens studio where Mizell was recording on the day before Halloween, 2002, and let Washington and Jordan into the building via a back entrance. A hat with Bryant’s DNA on it was found at the crime scene. Bryant’s uncle, Raymond Bryant, told the jury during the trial that Jay had told him he’d been involved in Mizell’s death. “He said he did it,” Raymond said. The defense lawyers for Washington and Jordan both claimed that Bryant was the alleged shooter.
U.S. attorneys filed a brief with the U.S. Court of Appeals on Thursday asking for a judge to overturn Jordan’s acquittal. “First, the court failed to consider all the evidence in the record and further disregarded evidence of the narcotics conspiracy if Jordan was not present at, or directly communicated about, such events,” the filing said. “Second, the court ignored the inferences reasonably drawn from the timing of events surrounding Mizell’s murder, Jordan’s role as the shooter, and Jordan and Washington’s conspiratorial relationship, instead requiring direct evidence of Jordan’s intent. Third, while finding sufficient proof of a narcotics-related motive as to Washington, the court ignored that Jordan, too, could have shared that same motive, in addition to having his own narcotics-related motives. Finally, the court failed to consider aiding and abetting liability.”
As DJ for Run-DMC, Jam Master Jay was an integral part of the DNA for hip-hop. “Ultimately, the reason my dad was killed was just jealousy,” TJ Mizell told Rolling Stone in 2024. “People don’t like to see other people win, unfortunately — especially in our communities, when there’s so little opportunity and everyone’s starving for just a shot to get out of the predicament that they’re in. If someone else got that shot and you feel like you deserved it, that can bring really bad thoughts into your mind.”
