Kidd Creole has been sentenced to 16 years in prison after stabbing a homeless man to death over four years ago. 

On Wednesday, May 4th, Creole, real name Nathaniel Glover, was handed the lengthy sentence in New York State Supreme Court for the murder of 55-year-old John Jolly.

“Mr. Jolly’s death was devastating to his family and those who knew him,” Manhattan District Attorney Alvin L. Bragg, Jr. said in court as Creole was sentenced. “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.

This case makes clear that if you commit violent crime, we will hold you accountable, and I thank our team for their hard work achieving justice in this matter.”

Creole first gained fame in the early 1980s as an original member of seminal hip hop collective Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five. After living a quieter life away from music, it was in 2017 that he gained wider infamy when he encountered John Jolly, a homeless man, on a Manhattan street.

While on his way to work, Glover stabbed Jolly, who died from his injuries at hospital shortly after. Glover was arrested the very next day and charged with second-degree murder.

According to a videotaped interview with police following the incident, Glover claimed he grew frustrated after thinking that Jolly wanted to pick him up. “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 back then. “So I was a little annoyed by that.”

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“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.”

After the trial for the case started in March, Creole was found guilty of manslaughter in the first degree one month later. After yesterday’s ruling, Creole will have to be under five years’ supervision following his eventual release from prison.

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