NEW YORK (AP) — A man whose conviction was recently thrown out in the killing of hip-hop luminary Jam Master Jay is asking to go free on a $1 million bond while prosecutors appeal, and he continues facing unrelated drug charges.
Since a judge scrapped Karl Jordan Jr.'s murder conviction in the death of the Run-DMC turntable ace, “there are seismic changes in circumstances warranting Mr. Jordan's release,” his attorneys, led by John Diaz, wrote in a court filing Friday.
Prosecutors declined to comment. There's no date yet for a hearing on Jordan's bond proposal, which includes electronic monitoring.
Jordan and co-defendant Ronald Washington were convicted in 2024 of the killing, which stunned the music world and stymied authorities for nearly two decades.
Then U.S. District Judge LaShann DeArcy Hall ruled on Dec. 19 that there wasn't enough evidence to support Jordan's federal murder conviction. She overturned the jury's verdict against Jordan and acquitted him, while upholding Washington's conviction.
Jam Master Jay, born Jason Mizell, was gunned down in his New York City studio in 2002. He was 37.
As the DJ in Run-DMC, he helped rap break through to mainstream audiences in the 1980s with such hits as “It’s Tricky” and a remake of Aerosmith’s “Walk This Way.”
Jordan, now 42, was Mizell's godson. Washington, 61, was a longtime friend. Prosecutors said the two killed the DJ out of greed and anger over a failed drug deal Mizell was engineering. Washington and Jordan denied the charges.
Prosecutors are appealing the reversal of Jordan's conviction. Regarding the unrelated federal drug charges, prosecutors and Jordan’s lawyers have indicated that they’re open to plea talks. He pleaded not guilty to the charges years ago.
During his more than five years so far in Brooklyn's troubled federal jail, Jordan was stabbed in the back 18 times during an inmate brawl last February. His lawyers said in Friday's filing that he has enduring “physical, mental and emotional scars.”
DeArcy Hall commiserated at a hearing last week, when Jordan was in court for the first time since the attack.
“It shouldn't have happened to you,” she said. “It shouldn't have happened to anyone.”
FILE -Run-D.M.C.'s Jason Mizell, Jam-Master Jay, poses with teenagers gathered at New York's Madison Square Garden, Oct. 7, 1986, in New York City. (AP Photo/G. Paul Burnett, File)
DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — The Islamic State extremist group claimed responsibility on Friday for an attack on an air force base in Niger's capital that wounded four soldiers and damaged an aircraft.
The claim of responsibility was contained in a statement on Amaq News Agency, the group's propaganda wing, that said it was “a surprise and coordinated attack” in Niamey that inflicted heavy losses.
State television reported that Niger's forces responded quickly to the assault early Thursday, killing 20 of the attackers and arresting 11 others,
The State Department on Friday ordered nonessential embassy staff and their families to leave Niger due to “security concerns” following the attack.
Video footage that appeared to be taken at the scene captured loud blasts and the sky glowing following explosions that began around midnight and lasted about two hours in the area of Diori Hamani International Airport.
The military leader of the West African country has accused the presidents of France, Benin and Ivory Coast of supporting the armed group behind the attack, without providing any evidence to support the claim.
“We remind the sponsors of those mercenaries, who are Emmanuel Macron (president of France), Patrice Talon (president of Benin) and Alassane Ouattara (president of Ivory Coast), we have sufficiently heard them bark, and they should now in turn be prepared to hear us roar,” Gen. Abdourahamane Tchiani told state television late Thursday.
Ivory Coast’s foreign ministry said in a statement on Friday it summoned Niger’s ambassador and called the accusation “a serious affront to the honor and dignity of the head of state, as well as to the Ivorian people.”
Benin's government spokesman, Wilfried Léandre Houngbédji, told local media the accusations were “not very credible,” adding: “These are diversions that will not distract us from our priorities.”
The French presidency and foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Niamey’s airport is a strategic hub that hosts military bases, the headquarters of the Niger-Burkina Faso-Mali Joint Force, and a large uranium stockpile at the center of a dispute with French nuclear company Orano.
West African airline Air Côte d’Ivoire said that one of its aircraft, parked on the tarmac of the Niamey airport, was hit during the exchange of gunfire, resulting in impacts to the aircraft’s fuselage and right wing.
Niger state television reported that one of the assailants killed was a French national, as footage showed several bloodied bodies on the ground. It provided no evidence.
Niger has struggled to contain deadly jihadi violence that has battered parts of Africa’s Sahel region, where neighboring Burkina Faso and Mali also are run by military juntas.
In 2025, al-Qaida and Islamic State group-backed militants escalated their campaigns in the Sahel, further threatening the stability of the fragile region and of Niger, which was the key security ally of the West in the region until a 2023 military coup.
Since seizing power, Niger’s military rulers — along with those in neighboring Mali and Burkina Faso — have cut ties with France and other Western powers and turned to Russia for military support to fight insurgencies.
The juntas also regularly accuse the presidents of Benin and Ivory Coast, two West African countries that maintain close relations with France, of acting as proxies for Paris.
Under the military juntas, Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso have seen a surge in attacks and have become more vulnerable to the armed groups, experts say.
The sophistication and boldness of the Niamey attack — including the possible use of drones — suggest that the assailants may have had inside help, said Ulf Laessing, head of the Sahel program at Germany’s Konrad Adenauer Foundation.
Previous attacks in the region appear to have increased the groups’ confidence, leading them to target more sensitive and strategically important sites, Laessing said Friday.
FILE- Motorcyclists ride by the entrance of the airport in Niamey, Niger, Tuesday, Aug. 8, 2023. (AP Photo/Sam Mednick, File)
FILE -In this image taken from video provided by ORTN, Gen. Abdourahmane Tchiani makes a statement, July 28, 2023, in Niamey, Niger. (ORTN via AP, File)
