Rapper Kidd Creole, who was a founding member of Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five, has been sentenced to 16 years in prison for stabbing a homeless man to death in 2017.
The 62-year-old, whose real name is Nathaniel Glover, had stabbed 55-year-old John Jolly in the chest twice with a steak knife in the street in New York in August 2017.
Glover was convicted of first-degree manslaughter last month and has been sentenced to 16 years in prison, and five years of post-release supervision.
He had pleaded not guilty, with his attorneys arguing he lashed out in self defence.
Prosecutors accused Glover of stabbing Jolly after believing he was gay and coming on to him as he headed to his maintenance job in the city around midnight.
They added that after stabbing Jolly, Glover headed to his workplace close by and changed his clothes and washed the knife, and was arrested the following day.
Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg said after the sentencing: 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.’
Manhattan State Supreme Court Justice Michele Rodney appeared to take issue with the defence’s argument that Glover had felt threatened as Jolly was homeless.
Ms Rodney said during sentencing, per The New York Times: ‘A life is a life is a life,’ adding that the killing was not ‘somehow justified because the person is homeless’.
Glover’s attorneys said they would be appealing his conviction.
The rapper had been a founding member of Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five, which was formed in the late 1970’s in the Bronx.
They were the first rap group to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2007.
