Rapper Says 12-Step Program Inspired Him to Confess to Murder

G. Dep — a rapper formerly with Diddy’s Bad Boy Records — was indicted on a second-degree murder charge in New York Tuesday. The 36-year-old MC turned himself in to police last week for a 1993 shooting, claiming that he was unaware until recently that the victim had died.

G. Dep, whose given name is Trevell Coleman, confessed to shooting John Henkel in a botched robbery in October 1993. His lawyer, Michael Alperstein, said Coleman is “trying to remake his life. It’s the power of 12 step program. He was making amends.”

“I started to wonder if all the bad things that happened to me in my life were karma for what I did,” G. Dep told the New York Post. “You start to think, ‘My happiness is because of someone else’s sadness.’ I thought that if I turned myself in, it might give me closure.”

The rapper was considered a rising star on Bad Boy Records during the late 1990s and released two solid singles, “Special Delivery” and “Let’s Get It.” But his career stalled after the 2001 release of his Child of the Ghetto LP, and he left the label not long after. He reportedly has been arrested nearly 30 times since 2003 on charges that include drugs and grand larceny.

Another Bad Boy rising star of G. Dep’s era, Shyne, served nearly nine years of a 10-year sentence for firing a gun at Club New York in 2001 in a case that also involved Diddy and Jennifer Lopez. Shyne — who has called himself Moses Michael Levi since converting to Judaism in prison — was released in October 2009 but was deported to his native Belize.

G. Dep, who remains in prison, faces a maximum term of 25 years to life if convicted. He is next scheduled to appear in court on January 13.

Rapper ‘G-Dep’ Indicted for 1993 Murder in East Harlem [DNAinfo]

‘Killer’ hip-hopper who turned himself in didn’t know victim died [New York Post]