Kidd Creole found guilty of manslaughter

Kidd Creole, real name Nathaniel Glover, has been found guilty of first-degree manslaughter and could face 25 years in jail following the death of a homeless man in 2017. The musician, who was a member of Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five but more recently had been working in recurity, admitted stabbing 55-year-old John Jolly in New York five years ago. On Wednesday a Manhattan jury came to the guilty verdict within hours of lawyers on both sides presenting their closing arguments, Rolling Stone reports.

Glover stabbed Jolly after an incident in which Glover believed the man was soliciting him for sex. Prosecutors argued that Glover’s motives were homophobic but his lawyers alleged that he acted out of fear. The defense also claimed Jolly’s medical records did not support the suggestion that the stab wound killed Jolly, rather it was a combination of alcohol and hospital-administered sedatives that led to his death. After being arrested on August 2, the day after the attack in 2017, Glover admitted to stabbing Jolly unaware he had died.

The original police report stated that Jolly was stabbed twice in the torso and that Glover fled the scene, changed clothes, and later disposed of the knife in a sewer.

“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 told police. “So I was a little annoyed by that.

“He approached me. I got a little nervous. 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 will be sentenced on May 4.