Musician’s death leads police to Port Townsend drug lab

By Brian McLean / Peninsula Daily News

PORT TOWNSEND — A Port Townsend man has been arrested for investigation of felony controlled substances homicide following the death of another man, a well-known musician.

Adam Michael Kelly, 38, had a first appearance in Jefferson County Superior Court today, two days after a 43-year-old man was pronounced dead of an apparent drug overdose, according to the Port Townsend Police Department.

Jarrod Bramson, half of the music duo Solvents of Port Townsend, was found unconscious in his vehicle at Jefferson Healthcare hospital just after 8 p.m. Wednesday, police said.

Efforts to revive him were unsuccessful, police said.

Kelly also has been charged with possession with intent to manufacture or deliver a controlled substance and unlawful use of a building for drug purposes. He was being held today in the Jefferson County Jail in lieu of $500,000 bail.

Kelly is scheduled to be arraigned during a hearing at 11:30 a.m. Tuesday at the Jefferson County Courthouse, 1820 Jefferson St.

Sequence of events

According to the probable cause statement and police interviews, the following sequence of events occurred:

Kelly and Bramson had been in contact earlier in the day and agreed to meet at Kelly’s house in the 1400 block of 12th Street. When Bramson arrived, he appeared to be under the influence. The men went downstairs to the “dungeon,” a term Kelly’s girlfriend used to describe the area where she had seen a pill press and liquid drugs.

The woman, who was not identified in the report, said the liquids and pills were steroids, and she said Kelly told her he was a pioneer in the market. The woman said Kelly told her he sold drugs to “the cartel” and worked in a business partnership with the Aryan Brotherhood.

About 20 to 30 minutes after Bramson arrived, the woman said Kelly called her downstairs to help revive Bramson. She said Kelly retrieved two shots of Narcan, a compound that can counteract opioid overdoses, and Kelly injected them into Bramson, one into each leg.

The woman said Kelly rejected her suggestion to call 9-1-1.

The pair carried Bramson to Bramson’s car and drove him about five blocks to the hospital, where they left Bramson in the passenger seat of his running vehicle.

Hospital surveillance video showed Kelly and the woman walking away.

Search warrant

Further investigation led to a multi-agency response and the execution of a search warrant at Kelly’s home, where hazardous materials were found, police said.

An FBI bomb squad entered the home Thursday during the execution of a search warrant and found a clandestine lab setup, according to the probable cause statement. The bomb squad found four processing stations where chemicals were heated and processed, a pill press and two other locations set up to manufacture controlled substances, according to the statement.

Bags with a white powdery substance filled a mini-refrigerator in the room, and printing labels were located for a broad geographic area along with fake labels to conceal the identity of the items being shipped, according to the statement.

The bomb squad also found several guns and boxes of ammunition along with a tactical vest, according to the statement.

The Port Townsend Police Department is the primary investigating agency, with assistance from the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office, East Jefferson Fire-Rescue, State Patrol SWAT, the FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration and the state Department of Ecology.

Singer, guitarist and songwriter Bramson’s partner in Solvents was Emily Madden. They often performed in Port Townsend, including during the Concerts on the Dock summer series and were next scheduled to perform on Saturday at the Pour House.

A gofundme page at https://tinyurl.com/PDN-bramsongofundme to help Bramson’s family with expenses had amassed $15,500 of a $30,000 goal today.

This story originally appeared in the Peninsula Daily News, a sibling paper of The Daily Herald.