Couple charged with drug felonies after August shooting

A couple who police say were caught with nearly 200 grams of illegal drugs after a nonfatal shooting in Lorain in August are facing felony drug charges. Damian Bell, 35, and his girlfriend, Kamrey Brooks-Haynes, 27, are charged in Lorain Municipal Court with possession of a fentanyl-related compound, possession of cocaine and two counts of trafficking in drugs. Bell was being held in the Lorain County Jail on $150,000 bond and Brooks-Haynes on $75,000 bond, according to jail records. Bell also was being held on an alleged probation violation, according to jail records. Search warrants for their DNA were unsealed in Lorain County Common Pleas Court this week, with Lorain police officers asking and receiving permission from Judge Chris Cook to take Bell and Brooks-Haynes' DNA to compare with DNA evidence on bags of drugs found in their car after Bell was shot and wounded in front of a bar in Lorain on Aug. 7. According to a Lorain police affidavit included in the search warrant application, officers responded to a shooting outside the Cotton Club at 1766 E. 28th St. in Lorain on Aug. 7. Bell had been shot in front of the club, and while officers were on their way Brooks-Haynes called emergency dispatchers to say she had Bell inside a Dodge Journey and they were driving on West 28th Street near Broadway on their way to the hospital. An officer caught up to them, stopped the car and found Bell in the backseat with several gunshot wounds, according to the search warrant. He was given first aid until LifeCare paramedics arrived and took him to Mercy Health Hospital. Brooks-Haynes' car was declared a crime scene, but she was "very upset and did not want anyone going through the vehicle," according to the search warrant. She also tried to move things around inside the car but was told to stop. Brooks-Haynes went to the hospital with a family member and police later got her consent to search the vehicle. When they did, they say, a plastic bag with 87.7 grams of drugs that tested positive for fentanyl was found inside. A second bag of 75.5 grams of cocaine also was found, police said. A third bag police recovered had 7.8 grams of cocaine in it. Another 26.3 grams of blue pills, suspected to be pressed fentanyl, and 2.9 grams of marijuana also were seized, according to the search warrant. The Chronicle-Telegram requested a copy of the police report on the shooting from the Lorain Police Department. The Lorain Police Narcotics Unit had Bell — also known as "Pookey," according to the search warrant — under surveillance earlier in the summer after getting an anonymous call saying he was selling illegal drugs out of his apartment on Reid Avenue. Detectives had watched as Bell made a drug deal with another man in the parking lot of the Sycamore Apartments on Sycamore Drive in Lorain on July 15, according to the search warrant. Bell's prior criminal record includes convictions for cocaine and drug trafficking in Lorain County Common Pleas Court in 2011 and 2017 and he was the defendant in a federal drug case in 2019 that ended with a 25-month prison sentence, according to court records. He has a total of nearly a dozen felony drug, weapons and related convictions dating back to 2003 in common pleas court, according to court records. Brooks-Haynes has no felony criminal convictions in Lorain County, according to common pleas records. Contact Dave O'Brien at (440) 329-7129 or dobrien@chroniclet.com. Follow him on Twitter @DaveOBrienCT.