With a lengthy criminal history, the man accused of sexually assaulting a girl outside a Coral Springs mall was placed under house arrest

Coral Springs, Florida – With a lengthy criminal history, the 33-year-old man who is suspected of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl in the parking lot of Coral Square Mall last month was expected to be limited to his Coral Springs residence when he approached the girl two days prior to New Year’s Eve.

Hosea Smith Jr. is currently awaiting another lengthy jail sentence and is being held without bond at the Broward County Jail.

Sexual battery, lewd and lascivious molestation, lewd and lascivious exhibition, and probation violation are the charges against him.

Smith is classified as a violent felony offender of special concern, according to court documents.
Court documents show that on December 15, 2011, Smith, then 20 years old, was arrested in Broward County for breaking into a Plantation home with two other people.

He was charged with grand larceny, prowling and loitering, and possessing stolen stuff at the time.

He was wanted in Portsmouth, Virginia, for not showing up to answer to a burglary and grand larceny charge there, according to information found when Plantation police checked his name.
Six months before to breaking into the Florida house, on May 17, 2011, he was scheduled to appear in Portsmouth court.

On June 19, 2012, he entered a guilty plea to the burglary and grand theft charges in Broward County. According to court documents, he was given a one-year house detention term and two years of concurrent probation.

Officials in Portsmouth, however, wanted him to return to face the accusations.
According to court documents, on July 12, 2012, he was freed from Broward County Jail and transferred to Virginia.

He was found guilty of burglary and grand larceny in Virginia and sentenced to 10 years in federal prison with four years suspended on October 30, 2012.

Additionally, he was sentenced to two years in a Virginia state jail with one year suspended for evading police on December 14, 2012, two months later.

According to court documents, he was freed on February 4, 2019, after serving more than six years in federal prison.

On August 17, 2020, Broward County law enforcement officials contacted Smith to respond to the accusations after learning that he had been released from jail more than a year earlier.

In Virginia, they contemplated allowing him to fulfill his probationary period and house arrest in Florida. When they discovered that he had been jailed three times since being released from prison, however, that changed.

On September 24, 2020, they issued an arrest warrant for him. But Virginia had already freed him from prison by then. According to court documents, he failed to notify his probation officer and his whereabouts were unknown.

Probation infractions mounted in the meanwhile. On May 5, 2021, and again on December 30, 2021, violations were reported.

According to court documents, Smith was not located during a July 2023 search of Florida property and auto records.

On March 6, 2024, Smith sent a letter to a judge, which was the next time the court heard from him.

Because he was young and in the wrong company while in Florida, he informed the judge, he was on probation in Virginia and was not allowed to leave the state. He is now married and has two kids.

He wrote, “I apologize for my mistakes.” He claimed that as he’s gotten older, he’s come to understand what matters.

He wrote to the court, “It’s all about obeying the law, putting God and family first.”

According to Flagler County court records, he was arrested on May 20, 2024, for providing a false name to a sheriff’s deputy when a car in which he was a passenger was stopped.

On June 6, 2024, he was extradited to Broward County Jail and accused of violating probation.
Smith was sentenced to one year of house arrest and two years of probation when a judge determined on June 18, 2024, that he had broken the terms of his probation.

According to a police complaint, he was subsequently charged on December 29 with sexually abusing a 14-year-old girl and exposing himself outside Kohl’s at Coral Square Mall, located at 9001 Atlantic Boulevard. On December 30, he was arrested once more.