HILO — A 40-year-old man who said hip-hop mogul Jay Z possessed his body when he bludgeoned his landlord to death more than four years ago in lower Puna has been acquitted of second-degree murder by reason of insanity.
Third Circuit Court Judge Greg Nakamura returned the verdict Friday in the case of Jason Russell Jump following a brief bench trial.
Nakamura said the prosecution demonstrated beyond a reasonable doubt Jump killed his landlord, 54-year-old James V. “Jimmy” Johns on Dec. 16, 2012.
The judge also found the defense demonstrated by a preponderance of the evidence Jump “lacked substantial capacity either to appreciate the unlawfulness of his conduct or to conform his conduct to requirements of law.”
Jump, who faced a mandatory sentence of life imprisonment with the possibility of parole if convicted of murder, will be committed for an indefinite period to the Hawaii State Hospital in Kaneohe, Oahu.
“There’s clear and convincing evidence to support a finding … that Mr. Jump is a danger to himself or to others, or the property of others, and hospitalization is appropriate,” Nakamura said.
Jump had been found fit to stand trial on Nov. 24, 2015.
The slaying of Johns, a 54-year-old wheelchair user, occurred in a tool shed on Johns’ Seaview Road property in Nanawale Estates subdivision. Documents said a “sharp instrument” was used.
At a fitness hearing on Oct. 29, 2015, psychologist Dr. Duke Wagner testified Jay Z, a rapper and music producer, “has been a constant figure” in Jump’s world.
According to Wagner, Jump said authorities should “put Jay Z in prison for the murder of James Johns and put other Illuminati who’ve been attacking (Jump) in prison, too.”
Others Jump allegedly said had inhabited his body include former first lady Michelle Obama.
Wagner said Jump suffers from persecutory delusional disorder and opined he was unfit for trial.
Another psychologist, Dr. Alex Lichton, the state’s designated examiner, diagnosed Jump as a schizophrenic but testified that Jump was fit to stand trial, as did a third examiner, psychiatrist Dr. Leonard Jacobs.
Lichton said that in a video shot before the homicide, Jump “addressed himself or described himself as the ‘Son of Man’” — a title usually reserved for Jesus Christ. He said Jump also complained of pain in his stomach allegedly caused by possession by others, and he continually referred to Illuminati.
Deputy Prosecutor Shannon Kagawa and Jump’s court-appointed attorney, Stanton Oshiro, declined to comment after the hearing.
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
