Ivan Brooks murder trial ends in mistrial by hung jury

ELYRIA — A nearly two-week murder trial in Lorain County Common Pleas Court ended Friday with a mistrial by hung jury after 12 jurors were unable to reach a verdict following two days of deliberations. Defendant Ivan Brooks, 37, of Lorain, was accused of shooting and killing 45-year-old Terrence Taylor at 841 Broad St. in Elyria in March 2019. He was charged with aggravated murder, murder, felonious assault, improperly discharging a firearm at or into a habitation or school safety zone, having weapons under disability and additional firearms and repeat violent offender specifications to those charges. After Friday's ruling, he remains in Lorain County Jail on $1.5 million bond. Judge James Miraldi asked defense attorneys Eric Long and Madelyn Grant and assistant Lorain County prosecutors Laura Dezort and Tony Cillo to file further briefs in the coming month before determining what happens next. Miraldi set the next hearing in the case for the afternoon of Dec. 15, and said he would consider their arguments at that time. "I'm sorry we're not able to have it resolved by this jury," Miraldi said in court Friday. Miraldi rejected a request from Long that Brooks be released from jail and placed on house arrest. Long noted that his client had been in police custody for 967 days as of Friday. Cillo argued that evidence presented in court showed that Brooks, who was on parole at the time of Taylor's killing, fled Ohio after being named a suspect in the murder; lied to a police officer who pulled him over in North Carolina the day after the murder; was in the company of two other criminal suspects at that time; is still facing murder charges; and still has two outstanding charges facing him on which Miraldi has yet to rule. Miraldi said the same flight risk and same risk to the public exist if Brooks' bond were reduced, and denied a reduction in bond. Brooks was released on parole from an Ohio prison on Feb. 12, 2019, five weeks before Taylor's killing. Prosecutors suggested during the trial that he shot and killed Taylor in an ambush just before 3 a.m. March 19, 2019, jealous because Taylor was dating the mother of two of Brooks' children while Brooks was behind bars. Defense attorneys argued that Brooks had an alibi and that no physical evidence and only one eyewitness, Taylor's girlfriend, linked Brooks to the killing. They also attacked the Elyria Police Department's investigation, saying detectives failed to do their due diligence in talking to potential witnesses or obtain scientific testing on evidence they collected, and Taylor's girlfriend's identification of Brooks as the shooter. Jurors deliberated the entire day Thursday, starting at 8:30 a.m. and ending at 4 p.m. On Friday, deliberations resumed at 8:30 a.m., and ended at 5 p.m. with no verdict and no chance of the jury breaking its deadlock, according to a note the jury forewoman sent to Miraldi. Miraldi read two parts of what is called a "Howard" charge to the jury on Friday. That is a request that the jury go back and make a final attempt at resolving the case. When jurors replied that further deliberation on Friday or Monday was not likely to result in verdict, Miraldi declared a mistrial by hung jury. Jurors sent multiple questions to Miraldi during deliberations on Thursday and Friday. At least four of them dealt with Brooks' alibi or his alibi witness, a Lorain woman named Brittany Duff. After first speaking with a private investigator working for the defense and with defense attorneys, Duff told an Elyria police only this summer that she had spent part of the night of March 18, 2019, and early morning of March 19, 2019, with Brooks. Duff testified she had met Brooks at a club in Lorain, exchanged phone numbers and the two texted each other before meeting up at her house on Fifth Street in Lorain. The two listened to Brooks' music, ran an errand to his friend's house on Seventh Court and also went to get food in between trips back to Duff's house, where they sat outside in Brooks' white BMW SUV. Duff testified that Brooks finally left after 3 a.m., which if true would mean it was impossible that he had been in Elyria shooting and killing Taylor. Duff testified she didn't think Elyria detectives believed her. She also wasn't clear on the times and date she hung out with Brooks, only the second time the pair had met. Jurors asked for a portion of a jailhouse interview Brooks gave to Elyria police detectives again, but were denied because prosecutors chose not to enter it into evidence. They also asked what date Duff had first been contacted by the defense as a potential witness and what date she had testified at an earlier pretrial. Duff had, in fact, not testified at an earlier pretrial. The jury's other question was answered in a judge's note telling them to rely on their collective memory to determine dates and times. The jury also asked for "a big map of Lorain," a request Miraldi denied, telling them in a note they had to rely on the evidence they had been given. Miraldi thanked jurors for their attention to the trial and for their "serious deliberations." He said he understood it might be frustrating or disappointing for them to have not reached a conclusion. "In doing your duty, sometimes that's what happens," he told them. Contact Dave O'Brien at (440) 329-7129 or dobrien@chroniclet.com. Follow him @daveobrienCT on Twitter.