Former Bad Boy Records Rapper, G Dep Released From Prison After Receiving Clemency For Murder Sentence
G. Dep/Travell Coleman @gdepofficial/Instagram
Former Bad Boy rapper G. Dep, legally known as Travell Coleman, was released from prison after being granted clemency thirteen years into serving a murder sentence. New York Governor Kathy Hochul released G. Dep and 15 other inmates serving time.
In 2010, the former New York rapper confessed to the cold-case murder of 32-year-old John Henkel, whom he robbed and killed near the James Weldon Johnson housing projects in Harlem. He explained that he threw the murder weapon in the river, and no connection was ever made for an assailant until he came forward years later. Coleman explained to the New York Post that he lived a crime-filled lifestyle when he shot Henkel three times. Coleman said, "That's just the life I was living back then." "I started to wonder if all the bad things that happened to me in my life were karma for what I did … 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." Therefore, Dep walked into a Harlem precinct, and admitted his crimes to the authorities.
Dep signed to Sean 'Diddy' Combs' Bad Boy Records years after Henkel's murder took place. He's remembered for his hit songs "Special Delivery" and "Let's Get It" and for showcasing the uber-popular dance, The Harlem Shake, in his videos. Like many other Bad Boy Records artists, Dep didn't have a lasting career, and his life reportedly down spiraled with drug abuse between the time he became a rapper in 1999 and turned himself in, in 2010.
A video of the former Bad Boy artist surfaced on his Instagram account, showing him walking out of prison gates with his belongings, meeting warm a welcoming and heavy embraces from others.
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