Former Bad Boy rapper G. Dep was convicted today of a two-decade old murder — a cold case East Harlem shooting that was only solved when he walked into a precinct two years ago, turning himself in so he could square himself with God.
The 37-year-old father of three now faces the mandatory minimum sentence for murder — 15 years prison.
“I told him to not regret his decision and that God won’t abandon him,” defense lawyer Anthony Ricco said, when asked by reporters to relay what he’d told the rapper as the two men hugged at the defense table, moments after the afternoon verdict.
“Trevell Coleman is a very courageous person,” the lawyer added, using the rapper’s given name. “He has a conscience and a heart and his conscience and his heart brought him to where he is today.”
Coleman’s confession had been so bizarre, so startling, that cops at first didn’t believe him. At at around age 18, he told them, he’d bought a .40 caliber pistol, and, looking for some easy money one pre-dawn October morning, he’d tried to mug a stranger who’d been standing alone at the corner of Park Avenue and 114th St.
He’d fired three shots at his victim, point blank, as they grappled over the gun, he told cops.
He then asked cops this question: did the man he shot half a lifetime ago, as a teenager, live or die?
Authorities quickly matched the confession to the 1993 shooting of John Henkel — shooting that had gone utterly cold, with no leads whatsoever. Cops then broke the bad news to Coleman, who’d gone on to some success in his 20s as a protege of Sean Combs, with such hits as “Special Delivery.”
Henkel, 32, had died almost immediately, cops told him. He was on the hook for murder.
Neither side voiced a doubt at the time that Henkel was the victim in question, and Coleman soon entered into plea negotiations. But those negotiations broke down when prosecutors refused to charge him with anything less than murder, meaning 15 years was the least he could ever get.
Just before trial, Coleman’s lawyer told prosecutors that while Coleman was not backing away from his confession, he was no longer conceding that Henkel was the victim.
This sent investigators scrambling to examine microfilm records for tens of thousands of shootings to see if there was any chance Coleman could have shot someone else that location, Park and 114th, someone for whom he would not be going on trial.
Lead prosecutor David Drucker told jurors at closing arguments on Monday morning that there were only three other shootings besides Henkel’s at that location during Coleman’s late teen years, and none of them even remotely fit Coleman’s confession. In one, the victim was female. In another, the shooter was apprehended at the scene. The third had happened in broad daylight.
Still, it took jurors a full day of deliberations to get past the lawyer’s suggestions that there were some discrepancies between Coleman’s confession and the facts of the shooting.
After the verdict was read, Coleman’s wife — who had urged him not to confess — ran from the courtroom in tears.
“Eighteen years ago, the defendant made a calculated decision to steal from, shoot, and kill an innocent person on the street,” said District Attorney Vance in a written statement. The DA’s statement thanks his prosecutors and jurors, but makes no such acknowledgement of the man who, ultimately, solved the case, Coleman.
“While nothing can bring the victim back, with this verdict a case that was open for nearly two decades is now closed,” he said. “I would like to thank the prosecutors for their work on this case, and the jury for its service.”