New attorney, trial date for Ivan Brooks in 2019 Elyria murder case

A Lorain man whose first murder trial in Lorain County Common Pleas Court ended in a hung jury in November 2021 will have a second chance to defend himself with a new set of attorneys and a new judge in May. Ivan Brooks, 38, remains in the Lorain County Jail on charges of aggravated murder, murder, felonious assault, improperly discharging a firearm at or into a habitation or school safety zone, along with firearms and repeat violent offender specifications. He has pleaded not guilty to all the charges. Held on $750,000 cash bond, Brooks is now on his eighth attorney and the third judge to preside over the case. Brooks has spent nearly four full years behind bars awaiting a resolution in the case. The newest pair of attorneys to handle Brooks' defense will be Denise Wilms and Giovanna Bremke after Judge Melissa Kobasher allowed attorney Kreig Brusnahan to withdraw due to a personal medical issue. Wilms had asked Kobasher to appoint an attorney to replace Brusnahan, saying she didn't think she would be able to single-handedly prepare a murder defense by a proposed March trial date. The transcript of the original 10-day trial was more than 1,000 pages long, with complex testimony about scientific testing, GPS and cellular phone data and tracking, Brusnahan said Friday. That was "good reason to have another attorney on the case," he told Kobasher. Assistant Lorain County Prosecutors Matt Kern and Rick Raley are representing the state. Kobasher set a new trial date for May 30, telling the attorneys she was "not interested in continuing this trial for any significant period of time." There was some question Friday whether Brooks would be allowed to represent himself in court, also known as "pro se" representation, but by the end of the day he agreed to be represented by Wilms and Bremke, according to Kobasher's office and court records. Kobasher had asked Brooks a series of questions to determine if he was choosing to represent himself "knowingly, intelligently and voluntarily," which Brooks said he was. Brooks, who said he has a GED and knows "some" of the rules and procedures of criminal law, said he was fed up with the multiple continuances that were preventing him from having his day in court. "I'm not playing with my life, your honor," Brooks told the judge. "I don't want to continue, not for no year. I've been here for four years. I've been locked in jail for four years. I was 34 when I got locked up. I'm 38. Why is this taking so long? It's nothing that I'm doing. I'm not doing anything to continue this. I'm not firing attorneys. I'm not going through a mental evaluation." "Why am I the only one suffering?" Brooks asked, saying he is being "held captive like a slave" in the county jail. Arguing that he knows his own case and the evidence better than anyone else, Brooks told Kobasher: "I would just like to proceed, your honor," "With an attorney?" she asked. "No, pro se," Brooks replied. "I will be ready, I will be ready, I will do the best that I can to be ready. I don't have a choice. I got a brick wall in front of me and a brick wall behind me. I'm stuck. There's nothing for me to do but prepare and do the best that I can. I'm gonna put my life in God's hands, and I'm ready. I don't have no fear in my heart whatsoever. I'm ready, I'm ready." "I feel like I would be the best to present the best defense for me," he told Kobasher. Background and first trial Elyria police accused Brooks of shooting and killing 45-year-old Terrence Taylor in the entryway of a house at 841 Broad St. in Elyria in March 2019. The Lorain County Prosecutor's Office took the case to trial but was unable to convince a panel of 12 jurors of Brooks' guilt. The jury was unable to reach a verdict after two days of deliberations following testimony that called into question the prosecution's star witness and her testimony that Brooks, an ex-boyfriend just recently released from prison, had shot and killed her new boyfriend as he opened the door. Brooks had been released on parole from an Ohio prison on Feb. 12, 2019, five weeks before Taylor's killing. Prosecutors alleged at his first trial that he ambushed, shot and killed Taylor just before 3 a.m. March 19, 2019, because he was jealous that Taylor was dating the mother of two of Brooks' children while Brooks was behind bars. Defense attorneys Eric Long and Madelyn Grant argued that Brooks had an alibi, no physical evidence linked him to Taylor's death, and the only eyewitness had reason to blame her ex-boyfriend for the murder of her current boyfriend. They also attacked the Elyria Police Department investigation, saying detectives failed to track down potential witnesses, didn't test evidence and didn't question the ex-girlfriend when she identified Brooks as the killer. Kobasher is hearing the case following the retirement of Judge Mark Betleski, who was assigned Brooks' retrial in July 2022 after Judge James Miraldi recused himself. Miraldi, who presided over Brooks' first trial in November 2021, found Brooks guilty of a single charge of having weapons under disability, a felony, and deferred sentencing until a later time. The jury in the first trial was not asked to rule on that charge. The nature of the charge — being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm — could have revealed Brooks' prior criminal record and prejudiced the jury against him, so it was up to Miraldi to decide guilt or innocence on that lone charge. After Brooks questioned whether Miraldi's ruling meant he was impartial, the judge agreed that it was in the interest of justice for him to recuse himself from hearing the retrial. In a decision handed down in July, Miraldi wrote that Brooks "had raised his concern that because I had already found him guilty of matters that were tried to the court in the first trial and those findings imply that I believe he is guilty of the remaining charges (that) are now subject to a jury trial due to the prior hung jury, that I cannot be fair and impartial." "Even though I want to believe that I could be fair and impartial, it would be easy for the defendant to believe that any ruling I make on the trial would be tainted by my preconceived conclusion of the defendant's guilt on the remaining charges," Miraldi wrote, adding that "it is simply best to erase all doubts and allow a brand new judge to hear any addition(al) motions and preside over the trial for the remaining charges." In the past several months, Brooks also filed a number of motions with the court, trying to get his bail reduced. Prior to his leaving the bench at the end of December, Betleski denied them all. Brooks also filed a motion with the U.S. District Court in Cleveland in July arguing that he was being held in the Lorain County Jail on excessive bail, in violation of his constitutional rights. He asked the federal court to reduce his bail to 10 percent of $50,000 cash. U.S. District Judge Bridget Meehan Brennan denied Brooks' motion in a ruling in October, according to federal court records. Contact Dave O'Brien at (440) 329-7129 or dobrien@chroniclet.com. Follow him on Twitter @DaveOBrienCT.