Pubdate: Sat, 17 May 2008
Source: Tallahassee Democrat (FL)
Copyright: 2008 Tallahassee Democrat
Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/hdEs6Z0o
Website: http://www.tallahassee.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/444
Author: Nic Corbett, Democrat Staff Writer
Cited: Tallahassee police http://www.talgov.com/tpd/
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topic/Tallahassee+police
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/people/Rachel+Hoffman (Rachel Hoffman)

DETAILS SURFACE IN HOFFMAN CASE

When Rachel Hoffman went undercover for a drug bust last week,
Tallahassee police lost track of her after she stopped answering her
phone and the monitoring device in her purse stopped working,
according to court documents obtained Friday by the Tallahassee
Democrat.

Hoffman, 23, had $13,000 in recorded bills to buy a gun, 2 ounces of
cocaine and 1,500 ecstasy pills May 7 from two men, Deneilo Bradshaw,
22, of Tallahassee, and Andrea Green, 25, of Perry. But somehow the
drug deal went bad and Hoffman's body was found the next day in Taylor
County.

Bradshaw and Green are in jail facing charges of kidnapping and armed
robbery. Murder charges have not been filed.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement has taken over the homicide
investigation. Spokesman Phil Kiracofe would not comment Friday on its
status.

But the arrest report for Bradshaw and Green offers more details into
what happened last week than what has previously been provided by TPD
or FDLE.

According to Tallahassee police investigator Ryan Pender, Hoffman told
him Bradshaw introduced her to Green to make the drug buy. About 6
p.m. on May 7, Hoffman made a call to Green, and they agreed to do the
deal at Forestmeadows Park on North Meridian Road in Tallahassee.
Hoffman, a 2007 Florida State graduate, had been arrested last year on
drug charges by TPD and allowed to enter a drug-diversion program. But
she faced additional charges after a raid by TPD vice officers on her
East Park Avenue apartment where an assortment of drugs were found.

On May 7, Hoffman drove alone in her 2005 Volvo to meet the two men,
according to the reports. About 6:40 p.m., Green called her on her
cell phone and told her to meet them in the parking lot of the Royalty
Plant Nursery. The nursery is north of Forestmeadows on North Meridian
Road.

Pender last saw Hoffman on North Meridian Road south of Forestmeadows,
according to the court document. Hoffman called Pender and said she
was following Green and Bradshaw in their car down Gardner Road.
Pender said he told Hoffman not to follow them, but Hoffman hung up.

About 6:45 p.m., investigators lost contact with her. Calls to her
phone went unanswered, and the monitoring device stopped working.

At some point, Special Agent L. Andris of the Drug Enforcement
Administration said he saw two men in a gray BMW parked in front of
the nursery as he drove by.

Jeanette Moran, DEA spokeswoman, said the Tallahassee Police
Department had asked the DEA to assist them in the case. She wouldn't
comment further.

When investigators reached the 1000 block of Gardner Road, they found
one back flip flop, one spent .25 caliber bullet, two live .25 caliber
rounds and tire skid marks. Hoffman was wearing black flip flops when
she was reported missing.

Police found Hoffman's phone several hours later in a ditch on
Centerville Road near Pisgah Church Road.

Investigators contacted Green's aunt and two cousins in Perry. They
said they saw Green and Bradshaw in Perry after the incident. They
didn't see Hoffman, though.

Both had a lot of cash in their pockets, the family told
investigators. Green gave one cousin $750, which he owed him, and his
other cousin $50 as a birthday present. Investigators examined the
bills and found they were the same given to Hoffman.

A witness said he saw Green with a .25 caliber-pistol at some point
that afternoon.

Karey Freeman, Bradshaw's stepfather and Green's father-in-law, said
he has visited Bradshaw in the Leon County Jail and has spoken with
Green on the phone. They told him they bought aspirin from the store
and tried to trick Hoffman into thinking it was ecstasy.

Freeman said he does not know who killed her. However, he maintains
that none of this would have happened if the Police Department hadn't
pressured Hoffman to find someone to bust. She had been coming by the
auto detailing shop where his sons worked for about a month, pestering
them to do a deal.

"They basically made a drug deal that none of them were capable of
fulfilling," he said. "Ms. Hoffman had a life. She had a family. She
had people that loved her. She had people she loved. Nobody should
have taken that away from her." 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake