Ex-NYC rapper once signed by Diddy has murder sentence commuted

Metro

By Jorge Fitz-Gibbon

A former rising-star rapper who signed with Sean “Diddy” Combs — then got sentenced to life for a cold-case Manhattan murder — is one of 16 convicts who just received clemency from Gov. Kathy Hochul.

Travell “G Dep” Coleman, 49, had been serving 15 years to life behind bars for the 1993 shooting death of a robbery victim in East Harlem — a slaying that remained unsolved till 2010, when the onetime promising rapper turned himself in to cops at the 25th Precinct station house.

The rapper’s lawyer told reporters after Coleman’s surrender that his client had been wracked with guilt since pulling off the fatal armed robbery as a teenager.

Hochul on Friday commuted Coleman’s sentence as part of her office’s traditional end-of-year clemency list. She also commuted three other convicts’ sentences and issued 12 pardons, eight involving drug cases.

A pardon wipes a conviction clean, while a commutation reduces a prison sentence.

In Coleman’s case, that means his sentence of 15 years to life was reduced by two years to 13 to life, making him eligible for early parole in 2025.

Coleman was an up-and-coming New York City hip-hopper who signed with Combs’ Bad Boy label in 1999 and scored with tracks such as “Special Delivery” and “Let’s Get It” before stumbling into drugs and crime.

He had more than 25 busts for drugs, burglary and larceny. 

He confessed to cops that he was riding a bike when he rolled up on victim John Henkel at Park Avenue and East 114th Street on Oct. 19, 1993, to rob Henkle.

The pair got into a scuffle, and Colemen said he pulled out a .40-caliber gun and shot the victim three times in the chest, then tossed the murder weapon into the East River.

A prosecutor in Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office last year urged Hochul to grant Coleman clemency, citing his achievements behind bars and his surrender to cops.

State officials said Coleman earned an associate’s degree and worked on violence prevention and sobriety counseling programs behind bars, as well as other rehabilitation programs.

Henkel’s brother, Robert Henkel, declined to comment when reached by The Post by phone Sunday.

But in an interview with The Post last year, he called Coleman’s bid for clemency “a farce” and blasted Bragg’s office for trying to get the killer out of prison early.

“It’s one thing to seek [clemency] for drug crimes, but not murder,” Henke said last December. “Let [Coleman] rot in jail. Let him do his 15 years, and then he can try to get out on parole.”

“Through the clemency process, it is my solemn duty as governor to recognize the efforts individuals have made to improve their lives and show that redemption is possible,” Hochul said in a statement.

With Post wires