The reversal, which came as the judge upheld the other man’s conviction, marked another stunning and confounding turn in one of the hip-hop world’s most elusive cases. It stymied investigators for nearly two decades before two arrests were made in 2020, and authorities had hailed the 2024 convictions as finally getting justice for one of rap’s pioneers.

Jam Master Jay, born Jason Mizell, worked the turntables in Run-DMC as the group helped hip-hop gain mainstream popularity in the 1980s with such hits as “It’s Tricky” and a fresh take on Aerosmith’s “Walk This Way.” His death followed the fatal shootings of Tupac Shakur in 1996 and The Notorious B.I.G. in 1997, forming a skein of tragic violence that took the lives of some of rap’s biggest talents at the turn of the millennium. Mizell was 37.

Nearly two years after the jury verdict in the case surrounding his death, the decision came from the same Brooklyn federal judge who presided over the trial. In Friday’s ruling, U.S. District Judge LaShann DeArcy Hall granted Karl Jordan Jr. an acquittal on the murder charges — a request she had denied when his lawyers made it during the trial. (CNN)