Convicted killer Ivan Brooks charged with felony cocaine trafficking, fleeing police

A Lorain man convicted of killing a romantic rival in 2019 after his three murder trials ended in hung juries will be back in Lorain County Common Pleas Court this week on charges he trafficked cocaine and fled from police who tried to stop his car last fall. Ivan Brooks, 41, was indicted Friday by a Lorain County grand jury on one count each of trafficking in cocaine, possession of cocaine and failure to comply with the order or signal of a police officer, all felonies. Brooks is in prison after violating the his conditions of post-release control, or parole, on his conviction for killing Terrance Taylor nearly seven years ago, according to the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections, or ODRC. He is set to be arraigned Thursday in Judge Melissa Kobasher's courtroom, the same courtroom where two of his murder trials took place. Defense attorney Denise Wilms said she had no comment on the new charges. According to the Lorain County Prosecutor's Office, Lorain police responded Oct. 2 to a report of an "unwanted man outside a residence" in that city. When an officer responded, he saw Brooks' maroon 2013 Nissan Maxima driving slowly away from the house. The officer stopped the car after an alleged turn signal violation, Chief Assistant Prosecutor Chris Pierre said. When the car stopped, police found Brooks behind the wheel. There was a baggie with 27.7 grams of cocaine inside in his pocket, Pierre said. The woman who called police on Brooks in October was Byanka Tavarez, the mother of two of his children. Tavarez testified against Brooks in all three of his trials in the shooting death of Taylor, 45, on March 19, 2019. He was tried in 2021 in then-Judge James Miraldi's court, then again in June and August 2023 in Kobasher's court. Taylor and Tavarez were in a relationship and Brooks had gotten out of prison a month before and was trying to get back together with her, according to testimony at his trials. Elyria police and county prosecutors said Brooks shot Taylor four times just inside the front entrance of 841 Broad St. in Elyria. Tavarez immediately identified Brooks as the shooter on a 911 call and to responding Elyria police officers. By the time police were able to get a warrant for his arrest, Brooks had left the state. He turned himself in to federal authorities in Cincinnati nine days later and was brought back to Lorain County for trial. Wilms and Giovanna Bremke, who was elected Common Pleas judge in 2024, were Brooks' attorneys in his last two trials. They argued that Elyria police didn't look into three other potential killers. Two alibi witnesses put Brooks in Lorain at the time Taylor was killed, and there was no physical evidence connecting him to Taylor's murder, Bremke and Wilms argued. None of the three juries were able to reach a unanimous verdict. Faced with the prospect of a fourth trial, Brooks pleaded "no contest" to involuntary manslaughter, felonious assault, improper discharge of a firearm at or into a habitation, having weapons under disability and tampering with evidence, all felonies, in February 2024. A "no contest" plea meant Brooks did not admit guilt but admitted the truth of the allegations. It also meant he kept some of his appeal rights. Kobasher accepted the plea, found Brooks guilty and sentenced him to six years in prison.Brooks denied being in Elyria the night Taylor was shot. At his sentencing, he told the court he "never shot anybody." Brooks had already served about five years in the Lorain County Jail awaiting trial or on trial by that time, and ended up serving about a year in prison before he was paroled in March 2025 and placed on two years and one month of post-release control, according to the ODRC. Brooks has been arrested three times following his release from prison. The first was on misdemeanor disorderly conduct charges by Lorain police in July 2025. Brooks pleaded "no contest" to a reduced misdemeanor charge in Lorain Municipal Court, was found guilty, served two days in jail and was fined $250, according to court records. The second arrest came after the October traffic stop by Lorain police. The third arrest was in December when Avon police charged Brooks with felony stalking in Avon Lake Municipal Court, a case that was bound over to a grand jury in January, according to court records. The Chronicle-Telegram requested a copy of that report from Avon police. Contact Dave O'Brien at (440) 329-7129 or dobrien@chroniclet.com.