The man charged with the brutal murder of Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska on a Charlotte light rail last year has been found mentally incapable to stand trial.
A state psychiatric facility has determined that Decarlos Brown Jr. is ‘incapable to proceed’ in his murder case. According to a motion filed on April 7, Brown was evaluated at Central Regional Hospital, where a report from December of 2025 concluded that he is incapable of going forward in the trial.
Brown’s public defender is asking the judge to delay the case – including the important hearing where prosecutors will decide whether to seek the death penalty – for 180 days. At the time of publication, prosecutors in the case have reportedly not objected to the delay.
Federal officials are currently holding Brown on separate charges related to the savage murder of Zarutska. His defense team argues that a competency hearing cannot proceed while he remains in federal custody.
In addition to the state murder charge, Brown also faces a federal charge of “causing death on a mass transportation system” – meaning two separate court systems are now pursuing him at the same time.
The Zarutska’s family attorney is not satisfied. According to Spectrum News, Attorney Lauren Newton has raised concerns about whether Brown will ever be treated to a point where a trial becomes possible. If a judge does formally accept the incompetency findings, the state murder case could be paused or even technically dismissed. However, charges could be reinstated if Brown is later deemed fit to stand trial.
The graphic surveillance footage of the murder spread quickly across the world, prompting a nationwide reckoning over how North Carolina handles violent repeat offenders with mental illness.
That public pressure led directly to the creation of Iryna’s Law. In simple terms, Iryna’s Law makes it much harder for people charged with violent crimes to be released on pretrial promise to appear in court (often called “cashless bail”). It also sets stricter rules for judges when deciding whether to keep someone in jail before trial, especially if the person has a history of violence or mental health issues that could make them dangerous to society.
In September 2025, The Dallas Express reported that a North Carolina judge’s decision to release Brown from custody in January was made despite his long record as a violent repeat offender.
Brown also comes from a family with its own troubling history of violent crime, DX reported. His older brother is currently serving a lengthy prison sentence for a separate murder, and Brown himself had racked up at least 14 prior arrests before murdering Zarutsaka.
During the 2026 State of the Union Address, President Trump honored Iryna’s mother, Anna Zarutska, whom he had invited to sit in the gallery. The President described her as a woman who “has been through hell” and promised to “ensure justice” for her daughter.
That promise now faces a huge legal obstacle.
Brown’s sister, Tracey Brown, told reporters she was not surprised by the motion to have him found incompetent, saying she has known about his struggles for years. She also expressed grief over the fact that it took a tragedy of this magnitude for the mental health system to pay attention to her brother’s deteriorating and dangerous state.
“I just hope both families get justice,” Brown’s sister said. “I hope that this situation opened up a lot of people’s eyes on mental health. I hope the state will start taking mental health seriously, so this won’t happen again.”
For the Zarutska family, the ruling is just another painful hurdle since the loss of Iryna. Her family previously described how she fled the war in Ukraine – only to be murdered by a man the justice system had repeatedly returned to the streets.
