Rap icon, Kidd Creole, a founding member of the legendary hip-hop group Grandmaster Flash and the Furious 5 has been sentenced to 16 years behind bars for stabbing a homeless man to death during a dispute in Manhattan.
Police had charged him with second-degree murder in the death of 55-year-old John Jolly.
Tourists found Jolly wounded on East 44th Street near 3rd Avenue just before midnight on an August 2017 night. He had been stabbed multiple times in the chest with a steak knife, the NYPD said. Medics brought him to Bellevue, where he was pronounced dead.
Security camera video recorded Kidd Creole stabbing the man. Police picked Kidd Creole up at his home in the Bronx a day later.
Prosecutors accused Kidd Creole of stabbing the other man after becoming enraged because he thought Jolly was gay and hitting on him. Creole's attorney had argued that the stabbing was in self-defense.
The 61-year-old hip-hop pioneer, whose real name is Nathaniel Glover, was found guilty of manslaughter in April for the 2017 killing of John Jolly, a 55-year-old vagrant and sex offender.
Prosecutor Mark Dahl, who asked that Glover be sentenced to 18 years in prison, said;
"The defendant had committed a senseless and unwarranted act of violence that took the life of one of the city's most vulnerable populations - the homeless."
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin L. Bragg, Jr said in a statement;
"Mr. Jolly's death was devastating to his family and those who knew him. Every life we lose to violent crime ripples throughout our entire city, and we will continue to ensure everyone in our borough can live their lives with the sense of safety and security they deserve."
During the sentencing hearing, Glover claimed he'd been wrongly cast as a killer. He said;
"I'm very disappointed in the way that that this whole situation played out. I've been portrayed as a callous and senseless [killer]... which is far from the person who I am.
"I've been slandered and all this made me seem as if I am a person who actually has no remorse and no repentance."
Glover added he was "disappointed" in the way the proceedings progressed, adding, "I also feel that at a certain point the truth of all of this will be revealed and I will be exonerated."
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