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Harlem rapper G-Dep, 15 others convicted of crimes in NY granted clemency
By
Samantha Max
Published Dec 22, 2023
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Family of Trevell Coleman
By
Samantha Max
Published Dec 22, 2023
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A Harlem rapper who turned himself in 17 years after he fatally shot someone during a botched robbery he committed as a teenager could soon be released from prison.
Gov. Kathy Hochul announced Friday she granted executive clemency to Trevell Coleman, 49, also known as the rapper G-Dep, and 15 others, bringing good just ahead of the holidays to a small fraction of those convicted of crimes in New York.
Hochul commuted the sentences of four people, paving the way for them to leave prison early. She pardoned 12 people who are no longer incarcerated, including many who are not U.S. citizens and faced the threat of deportation.
Some of those who received clemency include:
- Vitaliy Dorum, 41, pardoned for drug possession convictions from 2004. He immigrated to the U.S. as a teen and is not a naturalized citizen.
- Donnell Reed, 55, a military veteran pardoned for a 1991 drug possession conviction.
- Alexander Dockery, 54, whose 25-years-to-life sentence for burglary and trespassing charges was commuted. The governor’s office said he has already served nearly 23 years for breaking into unoccupied apartments, where no one was harmed.
- Eric Davidson, 54, who will get an expedited date before the parole board for burglary and stolen property charges.
- Michael Young, 64, who will also get an early chance to go before the parole board after serving more than 20 years for robbery and attempted robbery convictions. He otherwise wouldn’t have been eligible for parole until 2041, when he would be more than 80 years old.
- Coleman, who will also be allowed to ask for parole before he would have otherwise been eligible.
In Davidson’s, Young’s and Coleman’s cases, the governor has not guaranteed their sentences will be cut short. Instead, she’s leaving it up to the parole board to decide if they should leave prison early.
About 1,600 New Yorkers were awaiting decisions on their clemency applications as of December, Hochul spokesperson Maggie Halley previously told Gothamist.
Hochul has pardoned or commuted the sentences of 59 people since taking office, including seven in April and 13 in September. She has pledged to grant clemency “on an ongoing basis” and has implemented some measures to make the process more transparent.
But some advocates have asked the governor to use her clemency powers even more often — especially for people still serving lengthy prison sentences.
In a statement, Hochul promised to “continue working to ensure this process serves New Yorkers in the best way possible.”
“Through the clemency process, it is my solemn responsibility as Governor to recognize the efforts individuals have made to improve their lives and show that redemption is possible,” she said.
Coleman’s unique bid for clemency
Late one night in 1993, 18-year-old Coleman tried to rob a stranger at gunpoint in East Harlem. When the man resisted, Coleman has said, he fired three shots and fled, not knowing if the bullets struck. The man, later identified as 32-year-old John Henkel, died.
For nearly two decades, police couldn’t solve the case. Coleman, meanwhile, became a rising star in Harlem’s rap scene, scoring a $350,000 record deal with Bad Boy Entertainment, according to his attorney.
But the shooting haunted him. In 2010, Coleman told police what he remembered from that night 17 years ago. Officers connected his story to an unsolved homicide in the precinct’s log book, and prosecutors charged him soon after.
Coleman was convicted of second-degree murder in 2012. The jury foreman and the prosecutor asked for leniency, and Judge Michael J. Obus sentenced him to the minimum prison term: 15 years to life.
Since then, both the prosecutor who tried the case and the judge who sentenced Coleman have urged his release, as Gothamist previously reported.
“With Mr. Coleman, there is no doubt — his remorse is as genuine as I, or others I have talked to, have ever seen,” Assistant District Attorney David Drucker wrote in a letter submitted to Coleman’s clemency application.
Retired Judge Obus wrote that he had never asked a governor to grant someone clemency during his more than three decades on the bench. But he wrote that he was “enthusiastically” doing so on behalf of Coleman, adding that releasing Coleman would be “the right thing to do.”
Henkel’s brother, Rob Henkel, has said the governor should be removed from office if she lets Coleman leave prison before his sentence is up.
“This guy should do his whole time,” he previously told Gothamist. “He did it. He deserves his time.”
Coleman’s attorney, Steve Zeidman, said his client knows he has caused irreparable harm.
“That’s why he turned himself in,” said Zeidman, who leads CUNY Law School’s criminal defense clinic. “That’s why he’s done everything he can to atone and repair.”
Zeidman said he’s optimistic that the parole board will let Coleman go home, as he said they’ve done in the past when governors have used their clemency powers to let someone seek early parole. He said he also hopes in the future the governor will grant clemency to even more people who are serving long sentences and have repented for their crimes — including those who have been convicted of homicide.
“Trevell knows that he’s not unique,” Zeidman said. “There are countless others who cause serious harm, but who’ve done everything humanly possible to become better, to make amends.”
Tagged
public safety
new york
Race And Justice Unit
harlem
parole board
Kathy Hochul
trevell coleman
clemency
Samantha Max
Samantha reports on whether New Yorkers feel safe and whether the institutions that are supposed to protect them are working. Before coming to WNYC/Gothamist, she spent three years covering the criminal justice system in Tennessee for Nashville Public Radio. Her reporting on Nashville's police department received multiple awards, including the Daniel Schorr Journalism Prize. Samantha was also part of the inaugural class of Report for America, a service journalism program that sends up-and-coming reporters to local newsrooms across the country. She is a Northwestern University grad, a Baltimore native and fluent in Spanish. Got a tip? Email [email protected] or Signal: samanthamaxwnyc.93.
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