It took a little over a week for a jury to convict once-promising Harlem rapper G. Dep for a murder committed in 1993. The former Bad Boy Records artist, who rose to fame in the early 2000s as a protégé to music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs, now faces a 15-year-to-life prison term when he is sentenced in May, according to the Washington Post.

Opening statements in the bizarre murder trial began just last week as the jury heard the case of the fallen hip hop star, who confessed to killing a robbery victim nearly two decades ago. Dep, born Trevell Coleman, walked into a New York City police department in 2010 and copped to killing John Henkel, 32, during a botched robbery attempt near an East Harlem housing project.

Dep told police he shot Hankel three times with a .40 caliber gun in October 1993. After hearing all the evidence in the case along with the defendant’s own confession, the jury issued a guilty verdict. The Post reported that the now 37-year-old rapper hugged his lawyer, Anthony Ricco, after the verdict was read, while his wife and mother cried.

Ricco praised his client for doing the right thing and attempting to make amends for a mistake he made as a teenager.

“He has a conscience and a heart, and his conscience and his heart brought him to where he is today,” Ricco said after court. “He’s probably making the most powerful statement a rapper of his era can make, which is to be accountable and to do the right thing.”

Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr. saw it otherwise.

“Eighteen years ago, the defendant made a calculated decision to steal from, shoot, and kill an innocent person on the street,” Vance Jr. said in a statement.

The sentencing hearing is set for May 8.

BET.com is your #1 source for Black celebrity news, photos, exclusive videos and all the latest in the world of hip hop and R&B music.

Click here to subscribe to our newsletter. 

(Photo: Denise Truscello/WireImage/Getty Images)