Jaz Hoyt

Jaz Hoyt is a fictional character played by Evan Seinfeld on the television program Oz.

Character overview

Prisoner #98H432. Convicted August 12, 1998 - aggravated assault in the first degree. Sentence: Eight years, eligible for parole in four. Later, confessed to four counts of murder in the first degree and is sentenced to death. Sentence overturned after he was found insane.

Jaz Hoyt was adopted by a wealthy family. His birth mother abandoned him at an orphanage, while his real father died in prison. He demonstrated anti-social behavior as a child, he tortured and killed animals; and according to psychiatrists who had worked with him in the past, he even sodomized a playmate. His adopted parents did all they could for him. Hoyt graduated Phillips Exeter, and dropped out of Harvard.

Hoyt eventually took up with biker gangs and matriculated into their fold. Hoyt's quick temper and impatience results in his conviction of assault in the first degree. Jaz beat a video store clerk, with the very videotape he was renting, for talking on the phone, ignoring his customers.

Season 2

Upon entering Oz, he immediately takes up with the rest of the Bikers in Oz. He becomes their representative on the Emerald City council. While working his work detail in the mail room, Hoyt opens a letter for Bob Rebadow and finds that his grandson has leukemia and has a dying wish - he would like to go to an amusement park. Hoyt brings this information to the attention of the other inmates and in the end, they all decide to pitch in money to help Rebadow out, out of sympathy for his grandson.

Season 3

Hoyt began to use his work in the mailroom to run his own personal scams, much to Vernon Schillinger's annoyance. This created tension between the two prisoners who were usually friends, since the Aryan Brotherhood and bikers are allied. Ryan O'Reily, seeking revenge on Schillinger for raping his brother Cyril, asked Hoyt to smuggle some brass knuckles into Oz. Schillinger caught Hoyt and as a result, he was transferred out of the mail room. O'Reily advised Hoyt to go against Schillinger for this treason, and he did. He and the other bikers attacked Schillinger in the gym. However, this attempt on his life failed and Hoyt was sent to the hole. The Aryans and The Bikers were distant as a result of this mess, but when racial tension reached an all-time high, they reunited.

Season 4

Racial tensions rise in Oz. Russian inmate Nikolai Stanislofsky has the Bikers kill new arrival Ralph Galino, a construction contractor (to silence him, about the cell phone he accidentally brought into OZ). Hoyt and the bikers hold him down, injecting a lethal amount of heroin under his tongue. Hoyt and the rest of the Aryans and bikers are transferred out of Emerald City, by the new Emerald City director Quarns, who is trying to segregate it.

Drug trafficking continues. Stanislofsky claims O'Reily informed the COs that the Bikers killed Galino. Still, Hoyt refuses to kill O'Reilly, for fear of the authorities. Hoyt discovers why Stanislofsky wanted O'Reily dead: Galino's murder was due to Stanislofsky & O'Reily's feud over the cell-phone that Stanislofsky conned from Galino. Hoyt bullies the cell phone from Stanislofsky and then attempts to kill him, resulting in Hoyt's return to Ad-Seg and the cell phone in Ryan O'Reilly's possession.

Hoyt continues to side with the Aryans during rising racial tensions. After Quarns dismissal and McManus' return Hoyt and several Aryans and Bikers are transferred back to Emerald City, where they take umbrage with Kareem Said and the Muslims. Hoyt helps James Robson force Leroy Tidd to kill Said. He would also help him attempt to intimidate Jeremiah Cloutier to stop influencing Schillinger.

Hoyt receives a favor from Irish inmate-turned-Christian Timmy Kirk involving Cloutier, whom he still wants to be harmed for having an influence on Schillinger. They are to humiliate him, and then commit a dastardly deed. When Cloutier decides to join them in their work detail fixing a wall in the kitchen, Hoyt pays off the COs and with Kirk and his fellow bikers, they bury Cloutier alive, behind a masonry, kitchen wall. The deed would unravel when the prison exploded in the season finale.

Season 5

A barely alive Cloutier was found burnt and scarred viciously following the explosion which freed him from the wall he was bricked behind. Being the supervising inmate on that work detail, Jaz was sent to solitary as he was the only inmate they could tie to Cloutier's disappearance. However, the ducts in solitary confinement needed to be cleaned following the explosion, and so Hoyt was returned to Emerald City. This brought him back into the mess with Cloutier. Kirk became paranoid that Cloutier would rat them all out once his vocal cords recovered. Therefore Hoyt forced former biker-turned-Christian Jim Burns to find a way to kill Cloutier. However Burns had a "vision" of Cloutier telling him to kill Hoyt and Kirk; and he attempted to do so in the gym the following day. Hoyt managed to repel the attack and in turn killed Burns. This ended with him going to the hole for a short while since it was self-defense, but while there he also had a vision of Cloutier. It would later transpire that he was going schizophrenic from all the pressure in his life catching up to him, and in these visions Cloutier told him to kill Kirk or else he would haunt him forever. Hoyt attempted to do so and stabbed Kirk in the stomach with a crucifix. Later a terrified Hoyt confessed to a series of murders just in case Cloutier wouldn't leave him alone in his mind. Confession to these murders landed him on death row. However, he found out Kirk wasn't dead and decided to implicate him in the killing of Jim Burns, so he also would be on death row. Kirk however feigned innocence and ignorance and could not be convicted without any concrete evidence. Kirk then had inmate Clarence Seroy set up the burning of the rectory at which Catholic priest Father Ray Mukada resided, a move that hospitalized Mukada. Angered that his friend was in a hospital bed, Warden Glynn sought to place Kirk on death row. He informed Hoyt that they could successfully move Kirk to death row only through the testimony of another Biker corroborating Hoyt's version of events. Glynn also stated that he would not charge Hoyt's Biker buddy on a conspiracy or accomplice charge as he wanted to have evidence that Kirk proposed the murder to Hoyt. Hoyt had Biker Max Sands talk with Glynn. Kirk was then charged with first degree murder after Sands corroborated Hoyt's version of events. Glynn and Hoyt were consequently both happy that Kirk would face the death penalty.

Season 6

Kirk moves to death row along with Hoyt, Cyril O'Reily, and Chris Keller. Hoyt swears to kill Kirk. When Maxim does a photo shoot of death row prisoners, Hoyt electrocutes him, by forcibly shoving a lighting device in Kirk's mouth. Hoyt soon claims to see devils. Eventually he is ruled insane, thanks in part to the high-priced psychiatrist hired by his family, and thus removed from death row into Oz's psychiatric ward.

While waiting to be moved to the Connelly Institute for the criminally insane, Father Ray Mukada and Sister Peter Marie Reimondo contact his parents, and discover Hoyt is adopted. They manage to contact his birth mother and have her talk to Hoyt. This does wonders for Hoyt's mental health, as he begins to open up in sessions with Sister Pete, and even reveals to Mukada what happened to Cloutier, who seemingly disappeared the previous season via some super-natural event. Another biker in the hospital ward takes notice and in retribution stabs Hoyt several times in the stomach, killing him. Jessica Kirk, Timmy Kirk's mother, was an accomplice. She had begun volunteering as a hospital orderly in an attempt to understand her son's sociopathic behaviors.

Murders committed

• Bryan Lawler - Murdered by Hoyt, confessed in 2002.

• Adam Triconi - Murdered by Hoyt, confessed in 2002.

• David Horton - Murdered by Hoyt, confessed in 2002.

• Ralph Galino - Murdered by Hoyt, by injecting drugs in his toungue, along with the bikers holding him down, in 2002 he confesses along with the other murders.

• Jim Burns - Murdered by Hoyt by snapping his neck with a weight bar.

• Timmy Kirk - Electrocuted with a lamp by Hoyt in the death row unit.

Trivia

When Jaz Hoyt turns in his bed as Augustus Hill is introducing him in the episode "Animal Farm", you can see Evan Seinfeld's "Biohazard" tattoo on his back. Biohazard is Seinfeld's hardcore band where he sang and played bass. As the result of presumably accidental camera-work, there are various points in season 6 where Seinfeld's tattoo of the star of david is visible on his stomach. While probably not intentional, it does potentially raise questions about his characters frequent alliances with the Aryan's and the nature of alliances within Oz: The bikers and the aryan's frequently share enemies and Shillinger's willingness to ignore the fact that Hoyt is (or could be) Jewish does add an additional level of complexity to their relationship.

References