Kidd Creole, a founding member of pioneering rap group Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five, has been found guilty of manslaughter after stabbing a homeless man to death.
The incident happened on August 1 2017, when Creole (real name Nathaniel Glover) encountered John Jolly, a 55-year-old homeless man, on the street in midtown Manhattan. Glover ended up stabbing Jolly twice in the chest with a steak knife. He died in hospital shortly after.
The next day New York City police arrested Glover and charged him with second-degree murder.
“To tell the truth, I thought he was gay and because I thought he was gay, and he was saying that to me, ‘what’s up,’ I was thinking that he was thinking [that] I was gay,” Glover said in a videotaped interview with police.
“So I was a little annoyed by that. He approached me. I got a little nervous,” Glover claimed. “So then I tried to back up a little bit, and he moved forward, and then I just took the knife and stabbed him … I wish I never would have seen him. It’s all my fault, because I chose to stab him. I have to take responsibility for that.”
Glover claimed the incident was self-defence, with his lawyer telling the jury: “Ladies and gentlemen, this is New York City. It’s 12 o’clock at night. Who’s saying ‘What’s up?’ to you with good intentions?”
However assistant district attorney Mark Dahl hit back at the self-defence argument. “The defendant confessed to pulling out a kitchen knife and repeatedly thrusting it into the body of a stranger on the street, killing him,” Dahl said. “Was there anything that would prevent him from simply running away from Mr. Jolly? No.”
The jury reached its verdict just hours after lawyers on both sides presented their closing arguments, with Glover found guilty of manslaughter, reports BBC News.
Glover is scheduled to be sentenced on May 4. He faces a maximum of 25 years in prison.
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