[FeeFee]

Rapper's final hours

Pal: Fearful Jay flashed a .45

By MICHELE McPHEE
DAILY NEWS POLICE BUREAU CHIEF


Jason Mizell (Jam Master Jay)

Hours before he was gunned down, hip-hop pioneer Jam Master Jay showed up at his Queens studio with a .45-caliber handgun stuffed in his jeans, afraid he was about to die, a longtime pal of the rapper has told the Daily News.
"That was the first time I ever saw Jay with a gun," Ronald (Tinard) Washington said. "He was scared. He didn't say it, but I know Jay. He was scared."

In an exclusive jailhouse interview with The News, Washington said he knows who killed Jay, whose real name was Jason Mizell.

He knows because he was there that day, he says.

Washington - who is awaiting trial in Nassau County on unrelated robbery charges - has told police investigators and prosecutors his story.

Detectives believe that Washington was nearby when Mizell was killed in his Hollis, Queens, recording studio in October. But they are unsure whether that makes him a good witness or the likely lookout for the killer.

Nonetheless, detectives are investigating Washington's version of events, according to NYPD Inspector Michael Coan, a police spokesman.

And at the request of law enforcement officials, The News is withholding the names of the murder suspects implicated by Washington, 39.

"Jay was the only person in this universe who called me by my name, Ronald," Washington said from the jail, accompanied by his lawyer, Dana Grossblatt. "I did not commit this crime. I loved Jay."

On Oct. 30, Washington said, Mizell summoned him to the recording studio. When he got there, Mizell asked him whether he had a gun.

He says he didn't, but that Mizell lifted his jersey to show off his own chrome-handled .45.

"I told him I didn't have a gun," Washington said. "So he gave me one that was hidden in the studio. Then he gave me $200 to buy bullets."

After buying the ammo, Washington said, he returned to the studio to find a husky man - a former rap manager - and his son heading into the studio. Minutes later, he heard gunshots.

Mizell was killed, and a friend, Urieco Rincon, 25, was shot, both by a .40-caliber gun.

Two .45-caliber shells - matching the type of gun Washington said Mizell had - were found in the studio lounge.

The men Washington said he saw matched descriptions of the suspects released by cops hours after the shooting. NYPD detectives are investigating those men, but they are not being labeled suspects, sources said.

Cops mum on gun

The NYPD refused to say whether Mizell was carrying a gun the night he was slain. "We cannot comment on what was found at the crime scene," Coan said.

Washington wonders whether Mizell might still be alive had he interceded. But then he said, "There are only two types of people who run into trouble - cops and fools - and I ain't neither one."

Mizell's mother, Connie Mizell, said she doesn't know what to make of Washington's tale.

She told The News that since her son's slaying, she has come across evidence that makes her believe he may have been involved in things he never disclosed to her during their daily conversations - including carrying a weapon.

"A lot of things I hear now make me think something was going on in his life that bothered him," Connie Mizell said last week from her home in North Carolina.

"There is no way for us to know now if he was threatened or afraid," she said. "If he thought someone was trying to kill him, he never would have told us, the family. He never would have said something that would have frightened me."

Even if Washington's story is true, it's still unclear why those men wanted Mizell dead.

Washington suggested Mizell may have been involved in at least one drug deal that went bad, and that may have angered the two men whom he saw walk into the studio.

The around-the-clock murder case has been a complex one, with detectives investigating drug kingpins and unpaid debts, alleged marital infidelities and disrespectful rap rhymes.

Uncooperative witnesses

Police have described two possible witnesses - Lydia High, who buzzed the killers into the studio, and her brother, Randy Allen, Mizell's longtime business partner - as uncooperative. High has told cops that the two men were masked, though Washington said they had no masks when he saw them.

Meanwhile, federal prosecutors are conducting a sweeping probe into the rap industry that extends beyond gangsta street violence and into the offices of record company executives. The case could relate to Mizell's slaying, sources said.

"It is a complicated case," Coan said. "We are looking at every motive. Old disputes, arguments, business. Every door is still open."

Washington is in the Nassau County jail, arrested for allegedly being part of a two-man crew that robbed a Floral Park, L.I., hotel clerk at gunpoint, then led cops on a high-speed car chase through Long Island.

Police had been seeking Washington as a potential suspect after the Mizell shooting. After his robbery arrest, Washington told police his name was Mark White. Fingerprints revealed his identity and his criminal past.

He has convictions for shooting a cop during a jewelry store heist, dealing drugs and committing assaults.

As for Connie Mizell, she continues to visit her son's grave and even prays for whoever killed him.

"Whoever shot my son, his conscience will be his end. This was not the mob. This was not a professional hit. This was a local thing," she said. "I believe in God. I believe someone in that neighborhood knows, and it will wear them out until they tell."knows, and it will wear them out until they tell."