Jury goes home for night in case of drug informant's murder

After nearly 9 1/2 hours of deliberation, jurors decided they needed some sleep before determining whether Deneilo Bradshaw fatally shot confidential drug informant Rachel Hoffman in a botched drug sting.

The six women and six men began deliberating at 12:30 p.m. They eventually asked for a white board and markers, ordered dinner and later asked Judge Mark Walker two questions about the lengthy packet of jury instructions they had been given.

At about 9:45 p.m., they asked the judge for permission to go back to their hotel.

After spending tonight sequestered in a hotel, with no television, telephone or computers, the jurors will return to deliberations Wednesday morning.

The death penalty remains an option in the case.

Earlier in the day, Bradshaw's attorney, Clyde Taylor, offered a different script for jurors about what occurred on that dead-end road in northern Leon County the day Hoffman died. He told jurors Bradshaw's brother-in-law Andrea Green, not Bradshaw, was the murderer.

Green shot Hoffman five times on Gardner Road, then pointed the gun at Bradshaw, Taylor said during closing arguments Tuesday.

"He (Green) went ballistic," Taylor said. "He probably ran around that car and shot her, and then turned the gun on Bradshaw. (State attorney) Mr. Allman suggests Mr. Bradshaw should have done something on Gardner Road, perhaps, but in that case, we'd be dealing with two homicides on Gardner Road."

He reminded jurors of two jailhouse buddies of Green who testified Green told them he killed Hoffman and threatened to kill Bradshaw, 24, if he wouldn't drive away in Hoffman's car with her body inside.

Taylor said that should suggest reasonable doubt that Bradshaw was equally complicit in the slaying which occurred May 7, 2008, as Hoffman sought to buy Ecstasy, cocaine and a gun with $13,000 in bills marked by police.

Prosecutors reminded jurors of Bradshaw's actions before and after the shooting, which included spending the marked bills on bleach used to clean Hoffman's car, as well as on clothing and jewelry.

"In Orlando, he's so afraid of Andre Green that he meets up with his girlfriend, Rakicia Peterson, and has sex with her," said State Attorney Frank Allman. "Does that sound like someone who is in fear?

"He gets up the next day, buys some clothes, buys some jewelry. Time and time again he has a chance to get away. If he was just along for the ride, and Green kills Rachel Hoffman, why doesn't he have one of those 'Holy Moses!' moments, and say, 'I gotta get out of here'?

"An innocent person doesn't sing a song, singing, 'I woke up feeling like money.' "

In a police audio recording of Hoffman and Bradshaw, Bradshaw offers to get a gun for Hoffman, prosecutors pointed out. Hoffman showed up for the meeting in her swimsuit and made it clear she didn't have a gun, prosecutors said.

"Rachel Hoffman was not a violent person," said prosecutor Georgia Cappleman. "She says repeatedly, 'I'm just a little girl, a little Jewish girl.' She doesn't know anything about guns. She's got her drug lingo down, but she's completely naïve about guns. She says she wants a pretty, unregistered gun. This tipped him off.

"She tells Bradshaw that she trusts Andrea Green because he has kind eyes. She was a free spirit. She trusted police to protect her and they failed her. She trusted the defendant not to kill her."

Hoffman grew up in Pinellas County.

Prosecutors also reminded jurors of testimony by a crime scene analyst about Hoffman's body, which was found by a culvert off a rural road.

"She wasn't rolled," said Cappleman. "One man couldn't toss her into that ravine. Two men did this.

"You may think it doesn't seem fair, one guy shot her and the other didn't. If the man assisted, he is just as guilty as the trigger man."