Gov. Kathy Hochul (D-NY) granted clemency to 16 people on Friday, including Trevell Coleman, who is known by his stage name G. Dep.
Coleman, 49, is serving a 15-year-to-life sentence for the 1993 murder of John Henkel, which was considered a cold case for nearly two decades. The rapper walked into a New York police precinct in 2010 to confess to the crime, “explaining that he had been consumed by guilt about what he had done,” according to a press release from Hochul’s office.
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The original sentence made Coleman eligible for parole in 2025, but the commutation will allow him to appear before the state parole board sooner. Both the assistant district attorney who handled his prosecution and the judge who sentenced him supported his clemency application, according to the release.
Since he began serving his sentence, Coleman “has earned an Associate’s Degree, facilitated violence prevention and sobriety counseling programs and participated in a variety of additional educational, rehabilitative, and vocational programming,” according to the release.
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Coleman released two solo albums as G. Dep prior to his incarceration, and he made two top-five appearances on Billboard’s Hot Rap Songs in 2001: “Special Delivery” and “Let’s Get It,” a collaboration with P. Diddy and Black Rob.
Among the 16 people granted clemency in New York on Friday, 12 received pardons, and three others also had their sentences commuted. Coleman was the only convicted murderer in the group.
