Rapper Kidd Creole was found guilty of manslaughter after killing a homeless man he assumed was gay.
Back in August 2017, the 62-year-old, whose real name is Nathaniel Glover, stabbed John Jolly in Manhattan, New York.
According to a report from The Associated Press, the attack occurred after Jolly asked the rapper, “What’s up?” – which Glover interpreted as a flirtatious pass.
During the rapper’s trial on 26 March, his lawyer Scottie Celestin claimed his actions were in self-defence.
“Ladies and gentlemen, this is New York City. It’s 12 o’clock at night. Who’s saying ‘What’s up?’ to you with good intentions?” he said. “His fear for his life was reasonable.”
Celestin also told the jury that Jolly’s death was not the result of his two stab wounds but from the hospital’s use of the sedative benzodiazepine during treatment.
However, Assistant District Attorney Mark Dahl rebuked Glover’s claim of self-defence and revealed that the rapper told authorities a different story.
“The defendant confessed to pulling out a kitchen knife and repeatedly thrusting it into the body of a stranger on the street, killing him,” he told the jury.
“Was there anything that would prevent him from simply running away from Mr Jolly? No.”
In a taped interview with the police, Glover admitted to stabbing Jolly after he assumed he was hitting on him.
“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,” he said.
“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 was a founding member of Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five in the 1970s. The collective, which was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, have been viewed as hip hop pioneers.
With the guilty verdict officially announced, the rapper’s sentencing is set to take place on 4 May.
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