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Exclusive: G. Dep Calls Guilty Verdict ‘God’s Will’

‘I’ma just stay strong and hopefully I’ll see y’all in the near future,’ the former Bad Boy MC tells MTV News in a jailhouse interview. By Jesse Gissen G Dep Photo: Denise Truscello/ WireImage Two days after being convicted of second-degree murder, G. Dep spoke exclusively to MTV News on Thursday (April 19), where he reacted to the verdict from behind bars. “However it went down, it was just one of them things where I knew I was facing some type of charge, so whatever the verdict was, I knew it was God’s will,” Dep told us by phone as he awaits sentencing in lockup. The former Bad Boy rapper, born Trevell Coleman, was found guilty on Tuesday of killing John Henkel in a botched robbery attempt nearly two decades ago in his hometown of Harlem. Coleman made headlines in 2010 after he confessed — unprovoked — that he had committed the crime in a surprising confession to police at Manhattan’s 25th precinct. At the time, Coleman said that he longed to clear his conscience. Although he took blame for the shooting, Coleman’s lawyer, Anthony Ricco, argued in court last week that the victim was not the same man that police had pinned to the crime. Despite the outcome, the 37-year-old seemed at peace with the judgment call. “You know, someone was taken from [the Henkel] family, so I can’t feel like I was robbed in any kind of way,” he said. “I just want to thank everyone that was involved in the case. I don’t have no ill thoughts towards anybody.” That is if you don’t count a few reporters who covered the case for New York’s Daily News. “I just wanna let people know there’s a couple of reporters out there that’s just talking that talk,” he snarled. “I just had to make sure everything was everything,” he explained about his decision to fight the charge in court. “I was already putting myself out there. I had to make sure everything was what it was. That’s why the trial even was on.” G. Dep signed to Diddy’s Bad Boy Records in 1998, and went on to release his debut LP, Child of the Ghetto, in 2001. The record spawned two well-received singles, “Let’s Get It” and “Special Delivery,” but Dep’s rap career failed to take off. By 2003, he had parted ways with Bad Boy. Coleman took another stab at the indusry, dropping a mixtape the following year, but his various arrests and battles with drug abuse thwarted those efforts. Dep is scheduled for sentencing on May 8, when he’ll face up to 15 years in jail. “I’ma just stay strong and hopefully I’ll see y’all in the near future or the far future,” Dep said when asked how he feels about the impending jail time. “I know life goes on, praise God. And one day maybe I could say hello to y’all again.” Related Artists G Dep

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Exclusive: G. Dep Calls Guilty Verdict ‘God’s Will’

G. Dep, Ex-Bad Boy Rapper, Found Guilty Of Murder

He faces 15 years to life in prison when he’s sentenced May 8. By Nadeska Alexis G. Dep Photo: Denise Truscello/ WireImage Former Bad Boy rapper G. Dep, born Trevell Coleman, was convicted of second-degree murder in New York on Tuesday (April 17) following a trial that began after Coleman admitted to killing a man in 1993 during a botched robbery attempt. In late 2010, Coleman came forward to confess that he’d shot a man , identified by police as John Henkel, nearly two decades earlier in Harlem. According to Coleman’s story, he attempted to rob a man on a Harlem corner, then shot him and rode off on a bicycle, not knowing whether the victim had survived. Opening statements in the trial were made last week, on April 10, and one day later, Coleman dropped a bombshell on prosecutors by changing up his story . He claimed that while he did shoot someone, it was not Henkel. Despite the change in story, the prosecution stood firm, contending that Henkel was the only victim who fit the details of Coleman’s confession. “Eighteen years ago, the defendant made a calculated decision to steal from, shoot and kill an innocent person on the street,” Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr. said in a statement. Trevell Coleman is expected to face a minimum sentence of 15 years to life in prison on May 8. After the jury delivered a guilty verdict for the 37-year-old, defense lawyer Anthony Ricco praised his client’s efforts to be honest. “He has a conscience and a heart, and his conscience and his heart brought him to where he is today,” Ricco told reporters after the trial. “He’s probably making the most powerful statement a rapper of his era can make, which is to be accountable and to do the right thing.” Coleman saw a brief rise to fame beginning in 1998 with an appearance on “The Mall” from Gang Starr’s Moment of Truth album. Later that year he signed to Diddy’s Bad Boy Records, and in 2001 he dropped his debut album, Child of the Ghetto, which spawned the hit single “Special Delivery.” Still, the album failed to be a commercial success, and although he followed up with the 2004 mixtape The Deputy: The Sheriff Is Back in Town Volume 1, a slew of arrests, ranging from drug charges to grand larceny, put an end to his career for good. Related Artists G. Dep

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G. Dep, Ex-Bad Boy Rapper, Found Guilty Of Murder