A man described by prosecutors as a person of interest in a murder investigation was granted bond at an appeal hearing Thursday in Roanoke Circuit Court.

Samuel Eugene Freeman, 37, of Roanoke, was arrested Jan. 9 in High Point, N.C., and charged with possession of a firearm as a felon as well as possession of ammunition as a felon.

Those charges stem from an investigation into the death of Terrance Rasheen Perdue , 30, who was found fatally shot in his Pennsylvania Avenue apartment in northeast Roanoke on April 26.

In a summary of evidence Thursday, Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney John McNeil said Freeman had been Perdue's roommate at the time of his death.

A search of their two-bedroom duplex apartment during the investigation uncovered a shotgun in one bedroom and four mixed boxes of handgun ammunition in the other, McNeil told Judge Clifford Weckstein. He said paperwork found in the residence seemed to indicate Freeman had been using the bedroom where the shotgun was found. The shotgun was not the weapon used in the killing, McNeil added.

Freeman has 10 prior felony convictions, the conditions of which prohibit him from owning or handling firearms. Most recently, in 2007, he was sentenced to two years in prison after pleading no contest to cocaine possession and gun charges.

McNeil told the court several packets of heroin also were discovered in the apartment, but drug charges do not appear to have been placed in that matter.

Although Freeman told the court Thursday he could afford only a $5,000 bond, and McNeil asked the judge to hold him without bail, Weckstein said Freeman was entitled to bond and set the amount at $20,000.

A spokesperson for the Roanoke City Jail said Thursday afternoon Freeman had been released.

According to a search warrant filed last week in Roanoke Circuit Court, samples of Freeman's DNA have been taken as part of the investigation into Perdue's death .

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