Tipsheet

Oops: Rapper Confesses to 1993 Shooting Without Realizing His Victim Died, Now Faces Life in Prison

A bizarre, Law & Order-style story:

The guilt-ridden rapper who confessed to a 17-year-old murder told The Post yesterday he didn't know his victim had died when he decided to come clean on the cold case.

Trevell Coleman -- whose rap name is G-Dep -- said cops dropped the bombshell after he went into the 25th Precinct station house Wednesday to admit to the Oct. 19, 1993, shooting of John Henkel.

"I was surprised -- for some reason, I really didn't think that he died," the bald and bearded Coleman said in a jailhouse interview.  "When they told me, I was like, 'Oh, I'm not going home after this.' "

Manhattan DA spokeswoman Erin Duggan said Coleman, 36, has now been charged with murder in the case. He faces life in prison.

The NY Post report explains that Coleman has not exactly been a smooth criminal throughout his career, but he's admirably decided to "make things right" with his conscience and his creator:

Coleman's criminal record includes nearly 30 arrests, a law-enforcement source said.

"This guy had particularly bad luck with getting caught," the source said, noting his most recent bust in November for trespassing with drugs on city-housing property.  "I haven't been living right," Coleman told The Post. "I always had people around me that were good people, but I was doing the wrong thing."

Though he said his confession confounds everyone -- "People in [jail] don't understand how you can confess," he said -- to Coleman, it makes perfect sense.  "I'm just trying to get right with God," he said.