NEW YORK (AP) — A convicted drug dealer said Monday that Jam Master Jay, known for his anti-drug advocacy as part of the groundbreaking rap group Run-DMC, turned to cocaine trafficking to pay his bills. He reluctantly testified that he was involved.
Ralph Margraf gave his first public testimony about what prosecutors say was a drug deal that led to the DJ’s shooting death at his studio in October 2002.
Margraff said Jam Master Jay, whose real name is Jason Mizell, regularly offered to sell the rap star cocaine he acquired. “Maybe a kilometer or two here and there.”
“Jason was not a drug dealer. He simply used it to make ends meet,” Margraf said.
Two people close to the rap star, godson Carl Jordan Jr. and childhood friend Ronald Washington, provide answers to the long-unresolved loss of the hip-hop legend while raising new questions about his life. He is currently on trial for a case involving. Washington, 59, and Jordan, 40, have pleaded not guilty to murder.
Prosecutors said the dealer, now identified as Mulgrab, would not cooperate with Washington, removing them from a lucrative deal arranged by Mizell to distribute 10 kilograms (22 pounds) of cocaine. He said he was deaf.
Margraf told jurors that Mizell contacted him in August 2002 with about 10 kilograms of cocaine from the Midwest and “asked me to transfer it for him” in Baltimore. Margrave lived there at the time.
Mr. Mizell wanted Mr. Washington, known as “Tynard,” to be in Baltimore, said Mr. Margraff, who grew up with both men.
“He wanted me to work with Tinard. I told him no because Washington was ‘a problem,'” Margrave said. Mr. Margraf hated Washington so much that he wanted to shoot him when he appeared in Baltimore around that time, he said.
Before his release in 2013, Margraff spent 12 years in prison on a federal drug conviction and admitted in court that he employed about 25 employees to sell cocaine.
He was arrested on a material witness warrant, a procedure that can be used to force an uncooperative witness to appear in court, and spent seven days in jail, said attorney Gary Farrell, who was appointed to represent him. He only testified later.
Mr Mulgrab was taken to the witness stand on Friday but was reluctant to give evidence. In court Monday, he was quiet and wore a large medical mask.
Mizell’s family maintains that he was not involved in drugs. Run-DMC was the first rap group to earn gold and platinum albums and have a video aired on MTV, helping the genre gain a wide audience in the 1980s. .
The trio were outspoken about their opposition to drugs. Run-DMC made anti-drug public service announcements and proclaimed in their platinum-selling 1987 single “It’s Tricky,” “We’re not thugs, we don’t do drugs.”
Prosecutors and several witnesses who were at the studio that night said Jordan shot Mizell while Washington brandished a gun and blocked the door.
Jordan’s attorney said he was at his then-girlfriend’s house at the time of the shooting. Washington’s lawyer argued that he had no reason to kill his friend, who had helped him financially.
