Rapper G-Dep fails to get murder charges downgraded to manslaughter

(CBS/AP) NEW YORK - P-Diddy protégé G-Dep, who confessed last December to an 18-year-old cold case murder, has lost a bid to get his charges downgraded to manslaughter, and now may be facing a 15 years-to-life sentence.

According to the New York Post, defense lawyer Anthony Ricco had asked prosecutors that his client be shown leniency, with a plea to manslaughter or a lesser prison sentence, because G-Dep had turned himself in apparently due to a guilty conscience.

Prosecutors, however, have declined to offer the rapper - real name Trevell Coleman - a sentence of anything less than the 15 years, the Post reports. Coleman now must either take the deal or head to trial.

The once-promising rapper confessed to the 1993 shooting of John Henkel outside of a housing complex only to find out that his victim had died in the attack. For the 36-year-old G-Dep, the case marks a nadir in his long fall from rapper on the rise. After scoring a couple of hits in the early 2000s, he has been mired in drug and legal problems in recent years, though he was attempting a comeback with an album released online this year.

Ricco told reporters Thursday that despite the very real possibility of a long sentence, Coleman remains at peace with his decision to confess, the Post reports.

"His decision was made for all the right reasons," the lawyer reportedly said. "The DA should ask themselves whether they made their decision for the right reasons."

G-Dep was one of the rising stars of hip-hop impresario Sean "Diddy" Combs' Bad Boy Records label in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

G-Dep had hits with "Special Delivery" and "Let's Get It," the second of which featured Diddy and Black Rob.

More on Crimesider
December 20, 2010 - G-Dep Confesses to Murder; Rapper Didn't Know Victim Died, Says Report