Kidd Creole, 65, sentenced to 16 years in prison for stabbing homeless man, 55, to death in NYC

Rap pioneer Kidd Creole has been sentenced to 16 years in prison for stabbing a homeless man he thought was gay in New York City.  

Nathanial Glover, aka Kidd Creole, 62, stabbed 55-year-old John Jolly in Midtown Manhattan in 2017. Glover was convicted of first-degree manslaughter last month and today was  sentenced to 16 years and five years of post-release supervision. 

He pleaded not guilty and his attorneys are arguing he lashed out in self-defense.  

He stabbed Jolly twice in the chest with a steak knife after he thought the man was hitting on him on his way to his maintenance job in the city around midnight in August 2017. 

Authorities said Jolly had asked him: ‘What’s up?’ He was later found by tourists and was transported to the hospital, where he died. you 

‘The defendant confessed to pulling out a kitchen knife and repeatedly thrusting it into the body of a stranger on the street, killing him Was there anything that would prevent him from simply running away from Mr. Jolly? No,’ Assistant DA Mark Dahl said during the trial. 

Glover condemned his reputation as a killer at his sentencing, saying: ‘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.’ 

The musician, whose legal name is Nathaniel Glover, stabbed John Jolly, 55, twice in the chest with a steak knife after he thought the man was hitting on him. Jolly reported asked him: ‘What’s up?’ Glover fled the scene after the attacked and washed the knife at work before getting on a subway and disposing the knife in a Bronx subway station 

Glover (second from right) was a member of the New York City-based Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, hailed as a group of pioneers in the hip-hop movement with their signature track, The Message

The artist said he he believed he was be ‘exonerated’ and that he feels ‘at a certain point the trust of all of this will be revealed,’ the New York Post reported.  

In the years prior to the stabbing, Glover had been living by himself in a Bronx apartment and working in a copy shop a few blocks away from the stabbing incident.

Glover fled the scene and went to his office, where he washed the knife, and later disposed of it in a sewer at the Bronx subway station about 15 minutes later, TMZ reported. 

Police recovered the weapon the following day, when Glover was arrested and charged with second-degree murder in connection with the stabbing. He has been in custody at Rikers Island jail complex since then. 

Glover told authorities in a taped interview that he ‘was a little annoyed’ in thinking that Jolly was seeking a romantic encounter, according to Rolling Stone.

John Jolly, 55, died in the wake of the stabbing from the musical artist 

The musician was seen conferring with his counsel at the sentencing on Wednesday. The musician, who worked at a copy shop down the street from the incident at the time, said he believed he’ll ‘exonerated’ and that he feels ‘at a certain point the trust of all of this will be revealed’

Glover was seen being led away in handcuffs after being sentenced in a Manhattan court 

‘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 I was gay,’ Glover said in the police interview, adding that he ‘got a little nervous’ when Jolly approached him.

Glover, who was not aware Jolly had died following the stabbing at the time of the interview, told police, ‘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.’

In the case, prosecutors said that Glover didn’t have any reasons to be afraid of Jolly, and linked his actions with potential homophobia. Defense attorneys said that Glover was fearful of Jolly, and that Jolly’s death was due to a combination of alcohol and a sedative he was given while hospitalized.

Glover’s attorney Scottie Celestin said that police and prosecutors rushed to judgment of his guilt, saying, ‘They did the perp walk. They paraded him in front of the camera, that’s it.’

Celestin said that medical records obtained years after Jolly’s death indicated that the stabbing didn’t kill him, but prosecutors forged on with the case out of ‘self-preservation;’ and that testimony of witnesses in the case was ‘tainted and slanted’ in helping prosecutors in their ‘incompetent’ and ‘malicious’ attempt to convict Glover.

Celestin noted how Glover ‘repeatedly’ told police he ‘didn’t want to hurt’ Jolly.

Prosecutor Mark Dahl told jurors that Glover had taken Jolly’s life ‘in cold blood,’ and that none of the witnesses who took the stand in the case had any vested interest in Glover’s fate.

He was known as a pioneer in rap and hip-hop music (pictured in 2005) 

The group in 2007 was placed into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame , with Jay-Z inducting them 

Dahl also used a two-liter bottle to illustrate how much blood Jolly had lost after being stabbed by Glover, and said that Glover’s use of the knife illustrated an ‘intentional’ act of violence as opposed to a defensive act.

Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg, 48, said the case was an example of NYC cracking down on crime, which has experienced a 41 percent surge compared to last year. 

‘Mr. Jolly’s death was devastating to his family and those who knew him,’ Bragg said in a statement. ‘This case makes clear that if you commit violent crime, we will hold you accountable.’ 

Excluding murder, all violent crimes are up in the Big Apple with assaults up 19.8 percent, shooting victims up 4.4 percent, rape up 10.7 percent, and robbery up 44.5 percent. 

Glover, as Kidd Creole, was a member of the New York City-based Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, hailed as a group of pioneers in the hip-hop movement with their signature track, The Message. The group in 2007 was placed into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, with Jay-Z inducting them.