The Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five member stabbed the homeless man on his way to work in 2017
Rapper Nathaniel Glover, a.k.a Kidd Creole, has been sentenced to 16 years in prison for killing a homeless man.
The 62-year-old had stabbed John Jolly, 55, with a steak knife in the street in New York in August 2017.
The two had encountered each other late at night Midtown Manhattan and after exchanging words Glover stabbed Jolly twice in the chest.
He then headed to his job at a copy shop where he changed his clothes and washed the knife. He was arrested the next day.
Last month, the 62-year-old was convicted of first degree manslaughter.
Glover had pleaded not guilty with his team arguing he lashed out in self-defence.
Along with his 16 years behind bars, Glover was also sentenced to give years of post-release supervision.
Prosecutors accused him of stabbing Jolly because he thought he was gay and coming on to him.
Manhattan State Supreme Court Justice Michele Rodney said she was struck by Glover’s regret at what he had done in his initial interviews after his arrest.
Instead of the 25 years Glover could have been given as a maximum sentence, lead prosecutor Mark Dahl asked for a sentence of 18 years, admitting he had also been “taken aback by the manner with which he seemed to understand what he had done.”
Kidd Creole, real name Nathaniel Glover, was a founding member of 1970s hip hop group Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five. They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2007 (Michael Loccisano/Getty)But Justice Rodney said the evidence against Glover was significant, and took issue with the argument made by his lawyer, Scottie Celestin, who suggested that Glover had felt threatened by Jolly because he was homeless.
Before delivering the sentence, Justice Rodney said that “a life is a life” and that the killing was not “somehow justified because the person is homeless,” the New York Times reports.
Glover’s team said they would be appealing his conviction, and were unhappy with the judge not having a “cultural expert” to testify that the term “what’s up” – which Glover and Jolly greeted each other with – could be viewed as a threat.
Celestin also claimed Justice Rodney had not allowed Glover to argue he had been acting in self defence on the night.
Glover was a founding member of the pioneering hip hop group Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five.
Formed in the late 1970s in the Bronx, they became the first rap group to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2007.
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