Kidd Creole Sentenced 16 Years After Being Found Guilty of Manslaughter

The fate of a group member of a legendary Hip-Hop group has been determined.

According to the Manhattan District Attorney’s office in New York City, one of the founding members of the legendary Hip-Hop group, Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five, Kidd Creole, has been sentenced to 16 years in prison.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin L. Bragg, Jr. announced that Nathaniel Glover, known to the Hip-Hop world as Kidd Creole, has been sentenced after being found guilty of fatally stabbing 55-year-old John Jolly. The incident took place in midtown Manhattan in 2017. Last month, on April 6, a New York State Supreme Court jury found Kidd Creole guilty of Manslaughter in the First Degree.

“Mr. Jolly’s death was devastating to his family and those who knew him. 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,” said District Attorney Bragg in a written statement.

John Jolly was stabbed twice in the chest with a steak knife in midtown Manhattan in August 2017.

Prosecutors stated that Kidd Creole stabbed Jolly twice because he thought that the homeless man was gay and making a pass at him. Glover’s attorney said he did so out of self-defense. The former rapper, who initially faced a murder charge, was acquitted of second-degree murder.

The Daily News reported that the 61-year-old Kidd Creole was found guilty of manslaughter after a Manhattan Supreme Court jury deliberated for about three hours. He was acquitted of second-degree murder.

He’s been in prison for five years and was facing up to 25 years in prison when he was sentenced. Kidd Creole initially rejected an offer to plead guilty to manslaughter for a 10-year sentence before the trial started.

Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five were formed in the late 1970s in the Bronx. They earned worldwide success after recording one of the most well-known songs in hip-hop history, The Message, in 1982. The group was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2007, making them the first hip-hop group to get that distinction.