He sold drugs from filthy Florida home filled with roaches, rodents and kids, cops say

A married couple who detectives say had their six children living in deplorable conditions while the husband trafficked cocaine and marijuana out of their Palmetto home are facing a slew of charges, including armed trafficking in cocaine and child neglect.

Hosea Freeman, 26, was arrested Friday and charged with armed trafficking of cocaine, possession of a home to traffic drugs, five counts of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and six counts of child neglect. He is being held at the Manatee County jail on bonds totaling $551,000.

His wife, Brandi Bradshaw, 34, was also arrested Friday and charged with six counts of child neglect. She was released from jail the next day after she posted bonds totaling $6,000.

Detectives with the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office Special Investigations Division had been investigating Freeman and his home in the 1200 block of Martin Luther King Jr. Place in Palmetto since July, according to arrest reports. Enough probable cause was developed for a judge to sign a search warrant on Aug. 10.

After 3 p.m. Aug. 18, the SWAT team assisted detectives in securing the scene to execute the search warrant. Freeman was seen running toward his bedroom in the home but later came out. After being read the warrant and his rights, he agreed to talk to detectives and told them which bedroom was his.

When detectives searched Freeman’s bedroom, they found $100, three bags of rock cocaine weighing more than 13 grams, a 10-gram bag of powder cocaine and 18 bags of marijuana that weighed 43 grams. In the bathroom, capsules of cocaine, a bag of marijuana and other pills were found.

Inside the trunk of a Dodge Charger that was registered to Freeman’s mother but that was always seen at the home, detectives found more than nine pounds of marijuana and 57.3 grams of cocaine. An AK-47 assault rifle with 20 bullets in the magazine, another assault rifle, a reportedly stolen Glock 23 with a laser attachment and a .40-caliber Smith and Wesson handgun were also found in the car.

A child protective investigator was also called to the home after detectives found that the couple’s six children had been living in deplorable conditions, according to arrest reports. Detectives noted that there were hundreds of roaches crawling on the home’s ceilings, walls and floors; mold covered the carpets in the bedrooms; and mice were running around the kitchen.

Detectives called Bradshaw to the home, who brought the remaining children not present at the time detectives arrived.

Bradshaw admitted to detectives during a later interview that her husband sold narcotics out of the home, at times when the children were home, and that robberies and murder were connected to those sales. She also said that he kept at least two guns in the bedroom she and the children usually slept in.

This story was originally published August 24, 2017 at 11:33 AM with the headline "He sold drugs from filthy Florida home filled with roaches, rodents and kids, cops say."