Rapper Kidd Creole — a founding member of the legendary hip-hop group Grandmaster Flash and the Livid 5 — was sentenced Wednesday to 16 years behind bars for the stabbing dying of a homeless man throughout a dispute in Manhattan.
The 61-year-old hip-hop pioneer, whose actual title is Nathaniel Glover, was found guilty of manslaughter in April for the 2017 for killing John Jolly, a 55-year-old vagrant.
“A life is a life, whether or not the particular person is homeless, whether or not the particular person is a CEO,” Manhattan Supreme Court docket Justice Michele Rodney stated on the sentencing. “Inside seconds … Mr. Jolly’s life was modified endlessly.”
She stated the protection’s argument that Glover had acted in self-defense as a result of Jolly was a intercourse offender fell flat.
“You didn’t know him,” she informed Glover. “You didn’t know that he had a [history of] violence or was a sexual offender. These issues weren’t identified and don’t have a lot relevance when it comes to anyone’s motion on this case.”
The Rock and Roll Corridor of Famer — whose band churned out chart-topping tunes comparable to “Freedom” and “The Message” in the early 1980s — had confronted as much as 25 years in jail.
Carrying a grey swimsuit along with his hair pulled right into a ponytail, Glover regarded stoic as Rodney handed down the sentencing. He claimed he’d been wrongly forged as a killer.
“I’m very disillusioned in the way in which that this complete state of affairs performed out. I’ve been portrayed as a callous and mindless [killer]… which is way from the one that I’m,” he stated in courtroom.
“I’ve been slandered and all this made me appear as if I’m an individual who really has no regret and no repentance.”
Glover stated he was “disillusioned” in the way in which the proceedings progressed, including, “I additionally really feel that at a sure level the reality of all of this will likely be revealed and I will likely be exonerated.”
He then thanked the prosecutor earlier than leaving the courtroom.
However Cheryl Horry, a cousin of Jolly, stated the disgraced rap star deserved a harsher punishment as a result of he has proven no regret.
“I don’t agree with the sentence in any respect. He ought to have gotten the max. He ought to’ve acquired 25 years as a result of he looks as if a heartless punk proper now. He didn’t ask for forgiveness to nobody,” Horry stated exterior the courtroom.
“All he was frightened about was his picture, that’s all he talked about the entire time — his picture, the way it made him look,” she stated. “I’m very upset. I’m very offended.”
In August 2017, Glover acquired right into a shouting match with Jolly on the nook of East forty fourth St. and Third Avenue earlier than the stabbing passed off, police stated after his arrest .
Prosecutors later stated Glover stabbed Jolly as a result of he thought the homeless man was hitting on him.
On Wednesday, Assistant District Lawyer Mark Dahl requested that Glover be sentenced to 18 years in jail.
“The defendant had dedicated a mindless and unwarranted act of violence that took the lifetime of one of many metropolis’s most weak populations — the homeless,” Dahl stated.
Manhattan District Lawyer Alvin Bragg added that the case was an instance of his workplace cracking down on violent crime.
“Mr. Jolly’s dying was devastating to his household and those that knew him,” Bragg stated in an announcement after the sentencing. “This case makes clear that should you commit a violent crime, we are going to maintain you accountable.”
After the sentencing, Glover’s lawyer Scottie Celestin criticized the choose’s dealing with of the case and stated he deliberate to attraction.
“I’m totally assured this case goes to return again on attraction,” he stated exterior courtroom.
“I believe how the choose dealt with this case….I believe she steered the case and it’s going to return again,” he added with out elaborating.
Through the trial, Glover’s lawyer Scottie Celestin claimed he acted in self-defense and that Jolly’s stab wounds weren’t life-threatening.
Celestin beforehand blamed Jolly’s dying on a mixture of alcohol and a sedative that employees at Bellevue Hospital gave to him as a result of he was being combative.
