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By Kate Plummer
Senior US News Reporter
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Judge Teresa Stokes has attracted scrutiny on social media after it emerged that she presided over a previous case involving DeCarlos Brown Jr. months before he was accused of murdering a Ukrainian refugee.
Brown, 34, has been charged with the murder of 23-year-old Iryna Zarutska, who was stabbed in Charlotte, North Carolina, on August 22.
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Records show that Brown has been arrested 14 times in over a decade and was diagnosed with schizophrenia.
He has previously been convicted of felony larceny, robbery with a dangerous weapon and communicating threats, leading to a six-year prison sentence in 2015 for incidents dating to 2013 and 2014. He was released in 2020; then, months later, he was charged with assaulting his sister.
Newsweek reached out to Mecklenburg County Court via email outside of normal office hours for comment.
The Context
The attack occurred on the Lynx Blue Line near the Camden Road area in Charlotte's South End shortly before 10 p.m., police said. A video released by the Charlotte Area Transit System shows Zarutska sitting on the train shortly before Brown allegedly stood up and stabbed her in the neck from behind with a folding knife.
Zarutska was pronounced dead at the scene, and a suspect was taken to the hospital for treatment due to a hand injury. A folding knife was located near the platform, according to the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department.
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Brown's criminal history, as well as the crime for which he has now been charged, raises questions about Stokes' judgment and whether Brown should have been released.
What To Know
Stokes is a magistrate judge for the Charlotte District in Mecklenburg County Court, North Carolina.
She has also been linked to a charity that provides mental health and addiction support by social media users, though Newsweek was unable to verify these claims.
In January 2025, Brown was arrested for alleged "misuse of the 911 system" and was released after signing a written promise to appear at his next court hearing, according to court documents signed by Stokes and seen by Newsweek*.*
"This is a tragic failure on several levels," Matthew Mangino, a former district attorney in Lawrence County, Pennsylvania, told Newsweek. "Judge Stokes is responsible for making bail decisions. The standard is 'will the accused appear for future proceedings' and 'is the accused a threat to the public.' It would appear that DeCarlos Brown, Jr. had a history of violent criminal conduct.
"The unseen failure is the dismantling of community mental health care. Brown has mental health problems. Was he receiving mental health treatment while on the street? Unfortunately, for some former offenders, the only place they receive mental health care is in jail or prison," he continued.
"Should a judge send someone 'accused' of a crime to jail simply because they are mentally ill?"
Attorney Bradley P. Moss told Newsweek: "Living in a free society, where innocence is presumed until guilt is proven and courts assess the criminal allegation in front of them, there are unfortunate and sometimes tragic situations that can result. Even assuming the career criminal description of Decarlos Brown is accurate, the magistrate cannot simply hold someone in pretrial detention for the fun of it.
"The magistrate had to consider the specific crime at issue (misuse of the 911 system), past convictions (which appear to have been more than 10 years earlier), feasibility of even a cash bond, and other related factors. Hindsight is 20/20, and maybe requiring completion of the competency evaluation prior to release would have been the better course of action, but it is not wildly outside the realm of legal procedures for this mistake to have occurred. Fear-mongering and politicization will not solve this nor bring back Iryna Zarutska."
What People Are Saying
U.S. Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy, Sunday on X: "This monster had a track record longer than a CVS receipt, including prison time for robbery with a dangerous weapon, breaking and entering, and larceny. By failing to properly punish him, Charlotte failed Iryna Zarutska and North Carolinians."
Mecklenburg County District Attorney Spencer Merriweather told Axios it is "significant that our community is focusing its attention not only on public safety, but also how mental health impacts public safety. But we're at the very beginning of a conversation, not an end of one."
Florida Representative Randy Fine, on X: "I'm going to introduce legislation to hold judges accountable when violent repeat offenders they release commit new crimes. It's easy to release criminals when you're protected by an armed bailiff at all times. The rest of us aren't so lucky. Those 12+ judges that released Decarlos Brown Jr. should have their day in court too."
Elon Musk, on X: "Let's change the law. Between now and then, name and shame the DAs and judges who enable murder, rape and robbery. But especially shame those who funded the campaigns of the DAs and judges. That will make the biggest difference."
What Happens Next
Court records confirmed that Brown is being held without bond at the Mecklenburg County Jail. A judge had ordered a competency evaluation, according to WBTV.
His next court appearance is scheduled for September 19.
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