Murder victim’s family furious after Bragg prosecutor bids to free killer

In 2010 Trevell Coleman walked right into a twenty fifth Precinct station home in Harlem and confessed to the 1993 homicide.
Steven Hirsch

A prosecutor for soft-on-crime Manhattan District Lawyer Alvin Bragg is making an attempt to assist spring from jail a assassin he helped ship away a decade in the past – a transfer critics say is just attainable within the Massive Apple’s woke “Bizarro World.”

David Drucker wrote a letter to Gov. Hochul’s Govt Clemency Bureau in search of leniency for rapper Trevell “G. Dep” Coleman, who's serving 15 years to life at upstate Fishkill Correctional Facility for the 1993 cold-blooded taking pictures dying of John Henkel, 32.

“Many defendants show regret, however it's hardly ever clear how a lot they're sorry for his or her crime and the way a lot they're sorry for getting caught,” wrote Drucker within the Aug. 3 missive.

“With Mr. Coleman there is no such thing as a doubt — his regret is as real as any I, or others I've talked to, have ever seen.”

“A call to launch Mr. Coleman now could be a really secure in addition to humane determination,” added Drucker within the letter on official workplace letterhead. “On behalf of the New York  County District Lawyer’s Workplace, I strongly urge you to just do that.”

John Henkel was murdered in 1993.

Robert Henkel, the sufferer’s brother, referred to as Drucker’s clemency push a “farce” and is demanding Hochul reject it.

“That is such a battle of curiosity,” Henkel fumed. “The identical man who put him away is now asking for him to get out. It's one factor to hunt [clemency] for drug crimes – however not homicide.

“Let him rot in jail! Let him do his 15 years after which he can attempt to get out on parole.”

Coleman isn’t parole eligible till 2025.

In 2012, Drucker was working for then-Manhattan DA Cy Vance when he led a crew that helped convict Coleman on second-degree homicide costs. Drucker retired in September 2021 however returned to the workplace two months later as a $100-an-hour part-time prosecutor.

The case would have remained chilly had Coleman in 2010 not walked right into a twenty fifth Precinct station home in Harlem and confessed to John Henkel’s Oct. 19, 1993 homicide.

David Drucker was rehired by the Manhattan DA’s workplace two months after cashing out $186,877 to retire.

J.C.Rice

Coleman was an up-and-coming rap star who signed with Sean “Diddy” Combs’ Unhealthy Boy label in 1999 earlier than shifting to Well-known Information. He had additionally racked up greater than 25 arrests for medicine, housebreaking and grand larceny. 

He instructed cops he was using a motorcycle when he rolled up on Henkel at Park Avenue and East 114th Road to announce a theft. After Henkel resisted, Colemen mentioned he pulled out a .40-caliber gun and shot his sufferer thrice within the chest. Coleman mentioned he tossed the weapon into the East River.

When detectives reviewed the cold-case file, they had been amazed to find Coleman’s story matched up.

Coleman mentioned he confessed as a result of his darkish secret “weighed on me.”

At Coleman’s sentencing, Drucker mentioned the result was honest.

There was “a very harmless sufferer,” Drucker mentioned on the time. “The defendant shot him thrice within the torso, killing him, after which he biked off leaving the sufferer to die.”

Brooklyn Councilman Ari Kagan, a longtime Democrat who mentioned he switched to the Republican Celebration this previous week partly due to soft-of-crime techniques lefty pols like Bragg are pushing, referred to as the DA workplace’s “conduct” on this case “reprehensible.”

“It exhibits an absence of judgment and full ignorance of taxpayers’ curiosity,” he mentioned.

Drucker hauled in an $186,877 lump-sum payout by retiring final yr and cashing out unused go away accrued over 4 many years within the DA’s workplace. He additionally earned one other $76,690 in wage in the course of the fiscal yr that ended on June 30.

“Solely within the Bizzaro World do you see an ADA ‘resign’ to take a payout, be rehired, after which work on releasing a convicted killer he helped put behind bars,” barked Councilman Robert Holden (D-Queens). “Not a day goes by with out an ethics violation or a case of prosecutorial negligence by the Manhattan DA’s Workplace. However that is what we’ve come to anticipate with DA Alvin Bragg, who continues to mock town’s justice system.”

Since taking workplace Jan. 1, Bragg has downgraded greater than half his workplace’s felony circumstances to misdemeanors — whereas additionally managing to lose half of the felony circumstances that do attain court docket, a sharp decline within the DA’s workplace efficiency in comparison with earlier years below Vance.

Hochul spokeswoman Hazel Crampton-Hays mentioned the governor doesn’t touch upon pending clemency functions “however is dedicated to enhancing justice, equity, and security within the prison justice system, and we're reviewing functions on this context.”

Bragg spokeswoman Emily Tuttle referred to as Drucker a “universally revered profession prosecutor who has served with distinction.” She additionally mentioned his present duties embrace working “on critical murder circumstances, serving to practice and information Assistant DAs and offering counsel to the manager crew on our most complicated investigations.”

“When an esteemed murder prosecutor equivalent to Mr. Drucker believes that a New Yorker deserves early launch, we hear. There is no such thing as a higher particular person to find out the simply consequence for a case, whereas guaranteeing the security of New Yorkers is paramount,” she added.