G. Dep has broken his silence following his release from prison, explaining why he confessed to a murder almost 20 years after he committed the crime.
The rapper, who was signed to Diddy‘s Bad Boy Records in the ’90s, attempted to rob somebody at gunpoint in 1993, with the ensuing scuffle leading to the death of a man named John Henkel.
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The murder went unsolved until 2010 when G. Dep (real name Trevell Coleman) confessed to the killing, resulting in him later being sentenced to 15 years to life in prison.
The 49-year-old was released earlier this month after being granted clemency.
In his first interview since regaining his freedom, G. Dep spoke to The Art of Dialogue about why he confessed to the crime long after it happened.
“In order to restore balance to my life and someone’s family, I wanted to turn myself in and see what happened,” he said. “I was willing to put myself on the line, whether or not he passed on. I just needed to get that off my mind.”
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G. Dep continued: “I did the right thing.”
The “Special Delivery” rapper also denied having any regrets for turning himself in despite the case having long gone cold and him not ever being considered as a suspect.
Shortly after his confession in late 2010, G. Dep said his conscience told him to come forward after being haunted by the crime for years.
“It was an ongoing thing. It wasn’t one of those things where I said, ‘Okay, I’m going to just do it.’ I was thinking about it for a while,” he told XXL. “That day, I did an interview for this public access show. Right after that, I decided to just go ahead to the precinct.
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“I remember, in the precinct, when everything transpired, [the cop] gave me a phone to call my daughter’s mother. I was like, ‘Yeah, I’m going to have to go down for this, go through the system and all of that.’ So that was the first taste of just realizing that it’s a wrap.”
He added: “I felt like I was going to go through the same thing again — being happy, enjoying food and family — and I still didn’t handle what I thought I needed to. The reason why I probably did that at that time is I wanted… I couldn’t really continue to move on. I couldn’t move on and keep trying to satisfy myself if I didn’t deal with that.”
