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Slain Drug Informant's Mom Thinks 'Death Will Make History'

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By JOSH POLTILOVE | The Tampa Tribune

Published: May 12, 2008

Updated: 05/12/2008 05:06 pm

TAMPA - Margie Weiss took a break from writing her daughter's eulogy this morning so she could express the loss and pain she continues to feel.

"It's been a roller coaster ride, and I've just been blessed with so much love," the Safety Harbor woman said. "Everybody's hands have been lifting me up with their love."

Police say 23-year-old Rachel Morningstar Hoffman's body was found early Friday in rural Taylor County, southeast of Tallahassee, after a two-day search. The Pinellas County woman, a graduate of Countryside High School in Clearwater, was cooperating with the narcotics squad in an investigation when she disappeared Wednesday.

Police say she died after violating protocol while serving as a confidential informant.

Her attorney says police should have spoken with him before allowing Hoffman to serve as an informant.

And her friends and family say she wasn't the kind of person who should have been asked to help build a case against dangerous people.

Hoffman agreed to work with police after being arrested on several drug charges, including possession of more than 20 grams of marijuana and possession with intent to sell ecstasy, police spokesman David McCranie said.

She agreed to buy 1,500 ecstasy pills, 2 ounces of cocaine or crack cocaine and a gun as part of the police investigation, The Tallahassee Democrat reported.

Police have said Hoffman didn't follow protocol when she left with Deneilo Bradshaw and Andrea J. Green, who have been arrested. A park location had been set up for the deal, and "a large team" of police was on scene when she told an investigator over the phone that her meeting location had changed, McCranie said.

"We had an investigator telling her not to leave, to stay where you are," he said. "The safety of our citizens and our confidential informants is paramount. But she hung the phone up, and we had no more conversation with her, and that ultimately led to her murder."

Hoffman initially suggested to police that they investigate Green and Bradshaw, McCranie said. Officers now are seeking justice for Hoffman and are working to get homicide charges against Green and Bradshaw, he said.

Legal counsel and the state attorney's office weren't consulted when Hoffman became a confidential informant. It's not an officer's duty to tell lawyers, and police don't routinely speak with the state attorney's office about such things unless the arrest violates a person's probation, McCranie said.

Hoffman's father, Irv Hoffman, declined to comment today, saying he needs time to grieve.

Mike Weiss, Hoffman's stepfather, said he wants police to stop saying Hoffman broke protocol. He asked how Hoffman truly could understand how important protocol is and how an untrained civilian could understand how to protect herself in such a situation.

"The reality is, untrained civilians of any age should not be put in that position by a police force," Mike Weiss said. "They took a 23-year-old relatively naïve person and put her in a life-threatening situation."

Tallahassee police commonly seek out confidential informants, and since so many people want to be one to stay out of trouble, there's no need to twist someone's arm if she doesn't want to be one, McCranie said.

Hoffman appeared to make a good informant because she was 23, mature and an intelligent college graduate who police thought would follow directions well, McCranie said.

Her attorney, Johnny Devine, said he heard police say Hoffman had been shot but that later police wouldn't discuss details of how she had died. When asked by The Tampa Tribune for details on her death, McCranie said that information was unavailable.

After Green and Bradshaw were captured in Orlando, they led police to Hoffman's body, McCranie said.

Bradshaw told Karey Freeman, who is both his stepfather and Green's father-in-law, that Hoffman had been pestering him, trying to get him to make a deal with her.

"The young lady kept coming by, and she kept telling me that this is going to be an easy deal and this is just a [money] transfer. 'I can get the money if you can get the stuff,' " Freeman told the Capitol News Service today.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement will serve as the lead agency in the homicide portion of the investigation because the case crosses several jurisdictional lines.

Other agencies will be involved as well, and investigators are continuing to gather evidence, FDLE spokesman Phil Kiracofe said.

One of Hoffman's friends, Ed Sonnenschein of Tallahassee, said Hoffman might have sold marijuana previously but that she was a nice, caring person who didn't deserve to die.

"It's tragic that the police sent a lamb to slaughter," said Sonnenschein, 52. "Rachel liked to act like she was this and that, but if the cops bought her act that she was mature enough to handle it, they're stupider than I thought."

He said word spread quickly after police picked her up last month and that he spoke with her about it. Her name didn't appear on police blotters, so he warned her not to serve as an informant.

"I told her that whatever she had in mind, don't do it," he said. "Whoever she was planning on burning, don't do it."

Carlton Lahmann, another friend, said Hoffman was a small-time drug dealer who never dealt with cocaine or guns.

She had a ton of friends and was an outstanding person who planned to pursue a career in the culinary arts, he said.

Lahmann, 34, said he talked with Hoffman when she was considering being an informant.

"She just had to rat someone out to save herself from going to jail for a long time," he said. "Of course, she was scared. If you've ever met Rachel, she's mentally strong, very bright. But she's very dainty, a very fragile girl. She's not someone you would send in to bust a couple of thugs."

Another friend, Ilana Greenberg, wrote in an e-mail to The Tampa Tribune that Hoffman was the most naturally kind and beautiful person she had ever met.

"Unfortunately, it was Rachel's kindness that led to her death," Greenberg wrote. "It's not that Rachel made a bad decision, or didn't follow safety precautions, it was just that Rachel never thought that it was humanly possible to do to someone what was done to her."

Greenberg said Tallahassee police cared more about catching criminals than they did about the importance of human life.

"They used a beautiful, caring, trusting, and naïve girl and threw her into a world of hate and crime because they knew they could," she wrote. "They knew if anyone would do it, it would be Rachel. If they would have taken five minutes to step back and see Rachel as a person and not as one of their tools, then it goes without saying that Rachel would still be here today."

Margie Weiss spent Mother's Day planning her only child's funeral. Her daughter was so popular, she said, she expects hundreds to attend Tuesday.

The funeral service for Hoffman will be at 11 a.m. at Temple Ahavat Shalom, 1575 Curlew Road, Palm Harbor.

Weiss said she is forming a foundation to push for a requirement for confidential informants to seek legal advice before consenting to undercover work. The foundation also would work to get marijuana convictions decriminalized.

"Her death will make history," she said. "It's a great loss. The only way I can make sense of it is by now having her memory live on."

Hoffman recently graduated from Florida State University, having majored in psychology.

She rode horses, played music, traveled around the world, loved animals, cooked wonderfully and had a smile that lit up a room, Weiss said.

"She healed people with her love. She really did," she said.

Capitol News Service Reporter Whitney Ray contributed to this report. Reporter Josh Poltilove can be reached at jpoltilove@tampatrib.com or (813) 259-7691.

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