An eyewitness to the shooting of hip-hop legend Jam-Master J of Run DMC fame has been jailed for 17 years in the U.S for a string of robberies since the DJ's death.

The witness, Ronald 'Tenad' Washington, was named in 2007 by federal prosecutors as an accomplice in the murder of Jam-Master J, real name Jason Mizell, but has never been prosecuted.

Mizell was shot and killed in a New York recording studio on October 30, 2002. The other person in the studio, twenty-three-year-old Urieco Rincon, was shot in the ankle and survived.

Washington also is a suspect in the fatal shooting of Randy Walker in 1995, a close associate of the late rapper Tupac Shakur, but once again has never been prosecuted.