Attorneys in Charlotte light rail stabbing request mental health hearing for suspect
DeCarlos Brown Jr.’s federal defense attorneys on Thursday asked a judge to hold a hearing, deem him incompetent and hospitalize him.
If a judge grants that request, Brown could be forced to take medicine or undergo other treatment in hopes that he becomes competent enough to face trial in the August stabbing death of Iryna Zarutska on a Charlotte light rail train.
Federal prosecutors in a U.S. District Court filing also asked a judge to hold a hearing.
The requests come after examiners with the Federal Bureau of Prisons found that Brown’s “illness and impairments make him currently incapable of proceeding in his federal criminal case,” a motion the defense attorneys filed on Thursday morning said. In state court, a different examination came to the same conclusion last month.
Brown faces a rare terrorism charge in federal court after a video last year captured him stabbing Zarutska, a refugee from Ukraine. Her death drew outrage across the country, including from President Donald Trump.
The defense filing said Brown believes that something inside his body controls his actions. His mother previously told The Charlotte Observer that he is schizophrenic.
“For years, DeCarlos Brown has suffered from debilitating mental illness and impairment, including severe delusions,” his attorneys said in a statement Thursday. “Mr. Brown sought help, many times, for these delusions. He made multiple reports to law enforcement, and he continuously expressed his delusional beliefs to medical and mental health providers. He never received the help he needed. Our mental health and criminal justice systems failed him. And in doing so, they failed to protect the public.”
Body camera recordings obtained by the Observer in November showed Brown discussing the supposed material and begging police for help eight months before Zarutska’s death. Charlotte-Mecklenburg police charged him with misusing 911.
As misinformation swirls about last month’s finding on Brown’s mental health in his state court case, attorneys stressed in their Thursday filings that he still faces charges.
One expert who evaluated Brown concluded that “his prognosis to be restored to competency is good through treatment with medication,” federal prosecutors wrote.
If a judge deems Brown incompetent, under federal law, he will “undergo medical treatment for a period of time not to exceed four months,” prosecutors wrote. That would happen at a Bureau of Prisons facility.
“Importantly, and to avoid any confusion, competency to stand trial is a completely separate legal doctrine from an insanity defense,” they wrote. “One is not relevant to the other.”