The career criminal who allegedly stabbed Iryna Zarutska to de*th on a North Carolina train has been found incompetent to stand trial
DeCarlos Brown Jr., allegedly k*lled the 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee on August 22 of last year while she was sitting on Charlotte’s Lynx Blue Line light rail train on her way home from work.
The unprovoked attack was caught on surveillance video.
It showed Brown getting on the train then stabbing Zarutska – who was sitting in front of him – multiple times in the neck.
She bled out and died.
After the stabbing, Brown could be heard saying “I got that white b*tch”
Brown was arrested at the next stop.
He faces state charges of first-degree m*rder and federal charges for committing an act of violence causing death on a mass transportation system which carries the possibility of the death penalty or life in prison.
However, a psychiatric evaluation at Central Regional Hospital found Brown “incapable to proceed” with his state m*rder case.
This means he was deemed mentally incompetent to stand trial at this time, because he allegedly cannot understand the proceedings or “meaningfully assist in his own defense.”
His state public defender, Daniel Roberts, filed a motion requesting a 6-month delay for the Rule 24 hearing (where prosecutors would decide whether to seek the death penalty).
The hearing had been set for April 30 but was already delayed once for the evaluation.
Mecklenburg County prosecutors -under DA Spencer Merriweather- have said they are okay with the delay.
In North Carolina, defendants must be “competent to proceed.”
If they are not, they can be committed for treatment to restore competency, if possible.
