G. Dep found guilty of second degree murder

After doing what he thought was the right thing by admitting responsibility for a killing nearly two decades old, one-time Bad Boy MC G. Dep was found guilty of second degree murder in a Manhattan Court Tuesday, DNAInfo.comreports.

After hearing arguments and evidence for three days and two days of deliberation, the jury delivered its verdict this afternoon. G. Dep, born Trevell Coleman, was found guilty under America’s felony murder law, which dictates that any death that occurs during the commission of a felonious crime will be considered a murder and treated as such. In 1993 during an attempted armed robbery, Coleman, then 18, shot 32-year-old John Henkel twice before fleeing the scene on his bicycle. Henkel would later succumb to his injuries.

Seventeen years later, Coleman walked, on his own accord, into a New York City police station and confessed to shooting Henkel but claimed that he didn’t think the man had died.

Once he found out Henkel had died, Coleman said, he knew he wasn’t going home.

XXL reports that Coleman remained composed as the verdict was read while his wife and other family members in the gallery wept quietly.

The guilty verdict was delivered despite Coleman’s attorney Anthony Ricco’s attempts to convince the jury that the evidence was not strong enough to convict his client.

“They just could not get this story straight,” Ricco explained during his closing arguments, referring to the videotaped confession at the center of the case. “Are we talking about the same event? I’m begging you to go into the jury room and use your common sense.”

Coleman faces up to life in prison. Sentencing is scheduled for May 8.

Despite the 15-year minimum sentence Coleman faces, Ricco says his client still doesn’t regret his decision to come forward almost two years ago.

“Trevell is a very courageous person, very different of people from this era: he has a conscience and a heart,” Ricco told reporters. “It’s probably one of the most powerful statements that a rapper has ever made, and that’s to be accountable. I told him not to regret his decision, and that God won’t abandon him.”