Trevell Coleman began made a name for himself as G. Dep, but not without hiding some skeletons in his closet. In 1993, when he was 18 years old, Coleman was addicted to drugs and making money as a cocaine dealer. He bought a gun and used it to mug a stranger. When the man put up a fight, Coleman fired three times and fled the scene. The following day, police in the neighborhood were going around asking people if they had heard anything about a shooting the previous night. This made Coleman believe that the man had not died, so he kept his involvement in the shooting a secret, never sharing the details with anyone.
Coleman continued to try his hand at a rap career, and several years after the shooting, he caught the attention of P. Diddy. He signed a record deal and continued to be mentored by P. Diddy, but the night of the shooting always stayed with him. Once he became a father, he began to wonder about the man he had shot and if he’d had children. In 2010, wrought with guilt, Coleman walked into a police station and told a police officer he had shot someone over a decade earlier. The officer did nothing about it.
Still, Coleman went back two weeks later and spoke with another officer. This time, he shared the few details he could remember, including a description of the victim and the location of the shooting. He could not remember the date, but the police found a match in the cold case files. John Henkel had been shot on October 19, 1993, and had died at the scene. It wasn’t until the police told him that Coleman knew the man he had shot had died. Coleman was charged with murder and sentenced in 2012 to fifteen years to life. He maintains that he does not regret turning himself in.