No, DeCarlos Brown Jr. has not been released from custody. He still faces charges
When news broke that DeCarlos Brown Jr. was found “incapable to proceed” recently, there was some panic online.
Some worried he would be freed and not tried in the killing of Iryna Zarutska.
“So insanity was his defense and no doubt he will be unleashed on the citizens of Charlotte?” one person asked in a post on social media site X. “Is this what this means despite Irynas Law?”
In short: No, that is not what it means.
While the finding does not end Brown’s prosecution, it could complicate it. His state case has been delayed because of protections that he — and everyone — is guaranteed by law.
Were his charges tossed? Will he be released?
No.
Brown is being held in federal custody by the U.S. Marshals Service.
In his federal case, he’s been indicted on a rare, post-9/11 charge called “violence against a railroad carrier and mass transportation system resulting in death.” If convicted, he could spend the rest of his life in prison or be put to death.
In the state court case, he’s been charged with murder. There, too, life in prison and the death penalty are both possibilities.
What does it mean to be incapable to proceed, then?
State law says no one “may be tried, convicted, sentenced, or punished for a crime when by reason of mental illness or defect he is unable to understand the nature and object of the proceedings against him, to comprehend his own situation in reference to the proceedings, or to assist in his defense in a rational or reasonable manner.”
It goes back to the idea of due process and the 5th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Everyone is innocent until proven guilty. To go through the court’s process, a person has to understand that they have been charged with a crime and what that means.
But if someone is incapable to proceed, that doesn’t mean the case gets dropped. Instead, the court tries to restore his mental state so he can face his charges.
John Rubin, the Albert Coates distinguished professor of public law and government at the University of North Carolina School of Government, declined to talk about Brown’s case or any other case specifically.
Generally, though, he noted in a phone interview, the question in someone’s defense is not always whether he is totally innocent.
“It also can be whether they’re guilty of a lesser offense than the one they’re charged with, or if there are some mitigating factors if they are convicted that would affect sentencing,” he said.
A defense attorney, prosecutor or judge can raise the question of a defendant’s capacity at any time, state law says.
Why was he deemed incapable to proceed?
Court records say that a judge ordered that Brown be evaluated at Central Regional Hospital, a state psychiatric hospital in Butner, for his capacity to proceed on Aug. 29, during a virtual hearing.
Exactly four months later, on Dec. 29, a report from that hospital said he was incapable to proceed, according to a motion filed by defense attorney Daniel Roberts.
From the records available today, it’s unclear what a psychiatrist learned about Brown, but this is not the first time his mental health has come up.
His mother told The Charlotte Observer in September that he is schizophrenic and used to bang on the walls and sink in her home and claim that some “chip” or other thing inside him controlled his actions. In a phone call from jail with his sister, Brown blamed “the material.”
“Before you actually charge me with murder, make sure it was me that did it, not the material,” he said in the call. “And I’m telling you the material did it.”
In another incident months before Zarutska’s death, in which police charged Brown with misusing 911, he told them that something was controlling him and begged them to help him by investigating it.
What happens next?
Before Roberts’ motion pushed the case back, a court date was set for Mecklenburg prosecutors to answer whether they want to pursue the death penalty.
Roberts asked that the question be delayed for another 180 days. His motion said prosecutors took no issue with the case being continued. A judge’s decision is pending, and an administrative hearing is scheduled for April 30. Typically, though, when both sides make the same request, a judge grants it.
Also delaying the process, according to Roberts’ motion, is that Brown is in federal custody.
If the judge agrees that Brown is incapable to proceed, a new process will begin where the state tries to restore his capacity — that is, to make him understand his case and how it is proceeding, and to make him able to assist in his own defense.
Rubin, the professor, gave some examples of how the state might try to restore someone’s capacity.
“It may include medication. It may include therapy. It may include education on the way the criminal court system works so they are in a position to assist their attorney and defend against the charges,” he said.
A timeline is harder to predict.
Lawyers, judges and others in the criminal justice system have a common line about capacity restoration in North Carolina: “There’s not enough beds.” Space is scarce. Defendants who have been court-ordered for treatment can spend months in jail waiting to go to one of three hospitals.
Some programs, including one in Mecklenburg County, have added beds, but the issue persists.
What about in federal court?
Brown’s mental state has come up in federal court, too, where his attorneys also asked in December that he be evaluated. A magistrate judge granted that request in January.
On Wednesday, a sealed record titled “Psychiatric Report” was filed in Brown’s federal case.
The record is sealed because it contains health information, a U.S. District Court clerk said.
The Charlotte Observer reached out to Brown’s attorneys and asked about the filing.
“We do not have any information we’re able to share at this time,” First Assistant Federal Public Defender Megan Hoffman said in an email.
Legally, the state case will go through its own process.
“The state proceedings are completely separate from the federal proceedings, and the federal case is going first,” said a spokesperson for federal prosecutors, Lia Bantavani, in an email. “Nothing that happens in the state case will delay our federal case.”
How long before his state trial?
Even without accounting for the mental health questions, the process to restore Brown’s capacity or his being in federal custody, state murder cases often take several years to reach a jury.
The median murder case in Mecklenburg County takes over three years (1,235 days) to resolve, according to 2025 data from the North Carolina Administrative Office of the Courts.
What if he’s never restored?
State law says a judge “shall” dismiss someone’s charges when certain criteria is met. That includes if the judge finds that the defendant will never gain capacity or if legal limits for someone being jailed pre-trial for their charge are reached. Also, if 10 years pass since someone was deemed incapable to proceed in a felony case, the charges have to be dismissed.
Even if a judge finds that someone will never gain capacity, “that’s not necessarily the end of it,” Rubin said.
“If the person meets the standard for commitment, which is mentally ill and dangerous to self or others, they can remain involuntarily committed,” the professor said.
A judge would make that decision, too, and it would be reviewed periodically, Rubin said.
Does this system ever drag on?
In one infamous case out of Charlotte, then-murder suspect Devalos Perkins cycled between jail and mental health treatment for 11 years, stuck in a kind of legal purgatory.
In the end, he was released through a plea.
When Perkins was arrested in 2012, the law laying out the process was worded differently.
“When a defendant lacks capacity to proceed, the court may dismiss the charges,” part of the old law read before legislators changed the word “may” to “shall.”
Even then, the Observer reported in a 2023 investigation, so little case law existed on the issue that his limit on being held was murky. In court, Perkins had been found capable to proceed at least twice before a judge reversed course and threw him back into the evaluation process.
It was unclear whether the 10-year countdown restarted each time that happened, the Observer reported. There’s still some ambiguity on the issue, Rubin said.
It is worth noting that Perkins’ case — and the revolving door he was put into — stayed largely out of the public eye for years. Brown has drawn the attention and ire of the president and some in Congress. Also, Perkins’ jail time was an outlier.
It may be that Brown is referred for treatment, his capacity is restored and his case carries on normally. That happens, too.
Ryan Oehrli covers criminal justice in the Charlotte region for The Charlotte Observer. His work is produced with financial support from the nonprofit The Just Trust. The Observer maintains full editorial control of its journalism.