G. Dep Will Not Testify in His Own Murder Trial

Trevell "G. Dep" Coleman will not take the stand to testify in his own murder trial.

That was made evident at the end of Friday's (April 13) hearing at the Supreme Criminal Court on 100 Centre Street in Lower Manhattan, New York, where the former Bad Boy rapper declined his opportunity to testify before exiting the courtroom in handcuffs as his wife, Crystal Sutton, blew kisses at him from the gallery.

"He's already testified," Dep's lawyer Anthony Ricco told XXL, referring to his client's chilling video confession of shooting a man back in 1993, which was played in court the day before. "They got the tape, they got the statement."

Friday, day three of Dep's murder trial, had the defense continuing their tactic to pinpoint inconsistencies in the evidence.

Ricco again insinuated that although his client confessed to shooting a man back in 1993, that it wasn't John Henkel, the dead man who police matched Dep's shooting to.

Ricco did that by stressing discrepancies in the police's complaint logs, cross-examining Detective William Dunn, who admittedly testified that homicide files at the 23rd Precinct in Harlem were not kept in an orderly manner. Dunn also told the jury that he didn't know who wrote in the log book of complaints.

Ricco shrewdly brought up the fact that Coleman's video confession found G. Dep distinctly saying that the man he shot in 1993 was smoking a cigarette, yet, police didn't find a cigarette attached to Henkel's body at the scene of 114th Street and Park Avenue.

"There was no pack of cigarettes," Ricco told the jury. "No cigarette lighter recovered from Mr. Henkel. No book of matches recovered from Mr. Henkel."

The whole time, Coleman, wearing a khaki shirt and blue jeans, looked on silently, keeping a serious disposition. His wife, Crystal Sutton, sat in the courtroom in support.

Before Ricco's cross-examination of Dunn, Manhattan Assistant District Attorney David Drucker had Dunn comb through the log books on microfilm before the jury, attempting to use the process of elimination to cancel out shootings in which the information didn't match that of Coleman's. The point was to directly link Coleman to only Henkel's murder.

Coleman walked into the New York Police Department's 25th Precinct in Harlem in December 2010 to make the startling confession that he shot a man in a botched robbery attempt back in 1993. At the time of the confession, Coleman didn't know that Henkel, the 43-year-old Queens man police matched Dep's shooting to, died from the shots.

During opening statements on Tuesday (April 10), Drucker told the jury that the key evidence came from the “most reliable” source: the rapper himself, referring to Dep's confession.

Evidence finished being presented Friday, with the trial now shifting to closing arguments on Monday (April 16). One juror had to step down from the trial due to work obligations and will be replaced by an alternate juror Monday as well.

Check back with XXLMag.com for updates on the G. Dep murder trial.—Mark Lelinwalla (@XXL_Mark)

G. Dep’s murder trial began Tuesday (April 10) in New York’s Supreme Criminal Court andXXL is on deck, following the case. Check back with XXLMag.com daily for the latest updates.

Day 1: G. Dep’s Murder Trial Begins With Opening Statements

Day 2, Part 1: G. Dep’s Attorney Says There Are Inconsistencies in the Murder Case

Day 2, Part 2: G.Dep’s Defense Says Not Enough Evidence to Connect Client to Murder

Day 3, Part 1: G. Dep’s Attorney Insists His Client Didn’t Kill Presumed Victim