MANHATTAN — The rapper accused of stabbing a homeless man to death on a Midtown street after claiming the victim made a pass at him pleaded not guilty to murder charges Wednesday.
Nathaniel Glover, 57 — who performed under the name Kidd Creole for the iconic hip-hop group Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five — appeared in Supreme Court Wednesday to enter his plea while dressed in a white button-down shirt, dark slacks and a braided ponytail.
Glover told police he stabbed 55-year-old John Jolly because he was afraid of the man, who Glover claimed hit on him just before midnight on Aug. 1, authorities said. He used a knife he had attached to his forearm with rubber bands to stab Jolly twice in the chest twice near East 43rd Street and Lexington Avenue, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors said they have more than 10 surveillance videos from the scene that they would send to Glover's attorney, Patrick Watts.
Watts said he hasn't seen the videos and couldn't comment on what are on them, but court records show that Glover identified himself and Jolly in three screenshots taken from video surveillance of the incident when speaking with detectives earlier this month.
He also gave police a brief account of the incident and showed investigators where he discarded the steak knife he used to stab Jolly, which was in the sewer in front of 1781 Jerome Ave. in The Bronx, according to his voluntary disclosure form.
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Jolly was a registered sex offender who recently stayed in a shelter on the Bowery. He managed to walk about two blocks before collapsing near East 44th Street and Third Avenue, where he lay until police arrived just before midnight, officials said.
He was pronounced dead at Bellevue Hospital, police said.
Glover is currently being held at Rikers Island, Department of Correction records show. Watts said he'd soon be filing an application to request bail be set for his client.
A resident of Mount Hope in The Bronx, Glover was arrested for criminal possession of a weapon in 1982, 1995 and 2007, police said. The 2007 arrest for was for having a knife, but the earlier incidents involved firearms, police noted.
Outside the courtroom, Watts declined to comment on Glover's plea, saying it would be "premature for me to make a comment right now," but noted that Glover is doing "fine."
"I'm always optimistic," he said, declining to comment further.
Glover's supporters who attended the hearing also declined to comment.
