JMJ SUSPECT SENTENCED FOR OTHER CRIMES: Ronald "Tinard" Washington gets 17-year bid for series of robberies.

A man thought to be responsible for the murder of Jam Master Jay was sentenced to 17 years in prison and three years' supervised release in New York Wednesday for unrelated crimes, reports MTV News.

Ronald "Tinard" Washington, who has been implicated by two unnamed witnesses in Jay's murder, was sentenced in connection with his conviction last year on a series of robbery charges dating back to 2002.

Prosecutor Sean Haran argued for a stronger sentence for Washington "due to the defendant's involvement in two separate murders," presumably referring to the murders of Jay and Tupac Shakur's bodyguard Randy "Stretch" Walker, but Federal Judge Nina Gershon declined to consider the murders in her decision.

"If it was such an overwhelming case, someone would have prosecuted him, instead of hanging a murder on a string of robberies with a BB gun," she said in her ruling.