DeCarlos Brown Jr., 34, accused of murdering 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee Irina Zarutskaya in August 2025, was found “unfit” to stand trial. reports Fox News. The man will be sent for treatment. If he is then found competent, the suspect will face trial and the death penalty.
Brown is accused of fatally stabbing Zarutskaya on August 22, 2025, on a streetcar in Charlotte, North Carolina. The girl, who moved to the United States from Ukraine in 2022 with her mother, sister and brother, was returning home from work when she sat down in the seat in front of Brown, who jumped up and stabbed her three times in the neck. A few minutes later Zarutskaya died.
The attack was caught on CCTV, allowing Brown to be apprehended. Previously, the man served almost 6 years in prison, was arrested 14 times and was released on a signature six months before Zarutskaya’s murder. At the time of the tragedy he was homeless.
During Tuesday's brief hearing, which lasted about 15 minutes, Brown broke down several times and shouted that he would “press charges,” Fox News reported. Now the defendant will be placed in a specialized institution, said the prosecutor for the Western District of North Carolina, Russ Ferguson. Until Brown is found competent, he cannot legally be tried.
“He will be in custody all this time. Mr. Brown is currently under federal supervision and will remain under federal supervision until his trial,” Ferguson said.
A doctor who examined Brown before his competency hearing said the prognosis was good, the prosecutor told the station. Ferguson expressed the hope that the suspect will be found sane and everyone will “see him appear in court.”
As RTVI.US reported, the suspect’s relatives claimed that he allegedly complained about a “chip in the brain” that controls his actions, and that Zarutskaya “read his thoughts.” The charges against Brown could theoretically be dropped if treatment does not restore his competency. In this case, according to federal law, he may be prescribed re-treatment and isolation if he is considered dangerous to society.
In October, a federal jury in North Carolina returned an indictment against Brown, according to which the repeat offender “intentionally killed” Zarutskaya. Such a charge could result in the death penalty for the defendant.
As RTVI.US reported, DeCarlos' half-brother Stacy Brown is serving a 36-year prison sentence for murder, robbery and car burglary, and his sister Tracy has been arrested more than once for thefts.
The murder of the Ukrainian woman caused widespread public outcry in the United States. North Carolina Governor Josh Stein even signed Iryna's Law, named after the murdered woman, limiting bail for those suspected of violent crimes. Stein, among other things, proposed reinstating the death penalty in the state and eliminating the possibility of release from custody before trial without payment of any amount of money. US President Donald Trump, in turn, called Brown “an animal deserving of the death penalty” and confirmed that the Justice Department would seek capital punishment for him.
