A Brooklyn gang member was sentenced Wednesday to 23 years to life after he sealed up-and-coming rapper Nick Blixky’s fate with a quick handshake and five deadly bullets.
Caliph Glean, 33, an ex-con who had already served time for attempted murder, fatally shot 21-year-old Nicklaus “Blixky” Thompson on May 10, 2020, at Winthrop Street in Prospect Lefferts Gardens. A Brooklyn Supreme Court jury found him guilty of murder in December.
“Blixky” is slang for a gun.
blixky nickalus nick blixky shot shooting
Gardiner Anderson/for New York Daily News
Police investigate the shooting of rapper Nickalus Thompson (aka Nick Blixky) on Rogers Avenue and Winthrop Street in Brooklyn, New York on Sunday, May 10, 2020.
According to court filings connected to the case, Glean approached Thompson, then greeted him and “briefly touched hands” with him He then pulled out a gun, waited for a witness to step away and fired five times, hitting Thompson in the lungs and heart.
A dirtbike pulled up to the bloody scene, and Glean hopped on to make his getaway.
But his distinctive tattoos and fashion sense helped investigators find him — notably, his sweatshirt, his bronze foamposite sneakers, a large gold ring on his left hand and a distinctive tattoo of a globe on his left arm. He was captured in Philadelphia in June 2020.
Prosecutors described Glean in a sentencing letter as a rival gang member who hunted Thompson, intent on assassinating him.
The feds initially charged him with felony in possession of a firearm, but federal prosecutors agreed to dismiss that case after it became clear Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez would prosecute him for murder.
“This was a calculated killing carried out on a Brooklyn street. The defendant approached the victim, shook his hand and then fired numerous shots at point-blank range,” Gonzalez said Wednesday.
Thompson was killed less than a month before his debut mixtape was set to be released. His single, “Drive the Boat,” has more than 7 million views on YouTube.
Police at the time tied his death to feuds in the drill rap scene.