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OUTRAGE: Iryna’s Alleged Killer Declared ‘Incapable to Proceed’ in Trial But Roamed Free for Years

(Win McNamee/Getty Images)

Jarrett Stepman / @JarrettStepman

Jarrett Stepman is a columnist for The Daily Signal. He is also the author of "The War on History: The Conspiracy to Rewrite America's Past." Send an email to Jarrett

Another day, another example of how the Left’s view of justice is toxic to a free society.

A state court on Tuesday pronounced DeCarlos Brown Jr., the man accused of killing Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska in a random knife attack on a North Carolina train, “incapable to proceed” until a psychiatric evaluation is complete.

From my colleague Fred Lucas, who reported on the latest from this case: “A judge still has to accept the findings of Brown’s December mental evaluation, and the court could proceed if it determines Brown’s mental capacity is restored, WBTV reported. However, if the judge determines Brown is not capable of standing trial, the state charges would be dismissed.”

The ruling drew understandable fury on social media, including from members of Congress.

Rep. Mark Harris, R-N.C., called the decision “DESPICABLE.”

DeCarlos Brown Jr.—Iryna Zarutska’s killer—won’t face trial for another six months, after being ruled “mentally unfit.”This is DESPICABLE.Iryna deserves JUSTICE.She was MURDERED.So why is the system FAILING her?Pro-crime, Democrat-run cities keep putting criminals above… https://t.co/epc1UMkJ8K— Rep. Mark Harris (@RepMarkHarrisNC) April 8, 2026

Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., wrote that the decision was eroding American faith in our justice system.

Stories like this are exactly why Americans are losing faith in the system.When repeat offenders are protected and victims are ignored, justice isn’t being served. https://t.co/Nel2LoNsjw— Rep. Ralph Norman (@RepRalphNorman) April 9, 2026

Stories like this are exactly why Americans are losing faith in the system.When repeat offenders are protected and victims are ignored, justice isn’t being served. https://t.co/Nel2LoNsjw

Rep. Josh Williams, R-Ohio, wrote that only societies with a “death wish” could allow a man with such a long criminal history to suddenly be declared incompetent for trial.

Only societies with a death wish would allow somebody to be roaming the streets after fourteen arrests and then declare him "incompetent to stand trial" after murdering an innocent girl in cold blood. We simply can't live like this. https://t.co/iIPmwvxxhT— Rep. Josh Williams (@JoshWilliamsOH) April 9, 2026

It’s easy to see why North Carolina hasn’t executed a death row inmate since 2006.

On a positive note, if there really can be one in this story, Brown faces federal charges. So, even if the state charges against Brown are dismissed, it doesn’t mean he will escape prosecution, as Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon noted on X.

The state court’s current decision, even if in this case it’s justified, is outrageous for several reasons and points to why the killing of Zarutska infuriated so many Americans in the first place. Well, not the leftist political leaders of Providence, Rhode Island, who are more angry that people they don’t like are paying tribute to her. But let’s leave that aside for now.

It’s absurd that only now is the 34-year-old Brown suddenly deemed incompetent to stand trial after decades of evidence that he was unfit to roam freely in society. This wasn’t a man who committed his first violent crime after a sudden onset of schizophrenia.

Brown, who comes from a family of violent jailbirds, had been previously arrested 14 times in North Carolina since 2007. The list of crimes he’d been accused of includes assault, disorderly conduct, resisting arrest, and several other misdemeanors. In some cases, the charges were dismissed. In others, he was convicted. He often failed to show up in court.

After Brown was finally convicted of breaking and entering in 2014, he was sentenced to “30 days in jail and 24 months supervised probation,” according to WBTV.

Not even six months later he was arrested and convicted of robbery with a dangerous weapon after he attacked a man and stole his phone. That’s when he finally got a “serious” prison sentence of five years.

After his release in 2020, Brown continued to be arrested time and again, including for violent crimes.

Brown had been out of jail on cashless bail when he allegedly killed Zarutska. He’d been arrested for inappropriately dialing 911. Brown said he was being controlled by a “man-made” object according to the affidavit.

He spent only two days in jail when a local magistrate released him after he promised to appear in court. A judge ordered an evaluation of Brown as he roamed the streets. That was just weeks before he stabbed and killed Zarutska.

Why is it that only after being accused of committing a most heinous crime is this man suddenly incompetent to stand trial? Why is it that the man appearing in all these mug shots wasn’t deem unfit for society long ago?

The many criminal faces of DeCarlos Brown Jr. pic.twitter.com/YLQfzhzXs3— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) April 9, 2026

The many criminal faces of DeCarlos Brown Jr. pic.twitter.com/YLQfzhzXs3

Brown has spent his entire adult life being a menace to everyone around him. He appeared to have been in control of his actions when he assaulted and robbed people in the past. If he wasn’t, how was that not determined long ago after his fifth or 10th arrest? Even Brown’s mother said he should have been institutionalized rather than being set free.

This points to how the American justice system, in too many cases, has been warped to give repeat offenders second, third, 15th, near limitless chances.

Most Americans aren’t criminals, but most crimes are committed by the same people. A system committed to traditional justice instead of social justice would keep this small number of people behind bars. In many cases, indefinitely.

The Left thinks that’s unjust and cruel.

But, as the oft-repeated Adam Smith quotation correctly concludes, “Mercy to the guilty is cruelty to the innocent.”

In this case, a 23-year-old woman had her life brutally cut short because the system wasn’t committed to justice.

What the Zarutska murder and the legal system’s response to Brown’s life of crime reveal is that there will likely be many more innocent Americans hurt and killed who could be saved if only our policymakers and courts allow them to be.

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Today, even with President Trump’s victory, leftist elites have their tentacles in every aspect of our government.

The Daily Signal’s own Tyler O’Neil exposes this leftist cabal in his new book, The Woketopus: The Dark Money Cabal Manipulating the Federal Government.

In this book, O’Neil reveals how the Left’s NGO apparatus pursues its woke agenda, maneuvering like an octopus by circumventing Congress and entrenching its interests in the federal government.

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OUTRAGE: Iryna’s Alleged Killer Declared ‘Incapable to Proceed’ in Trial But Roamed Free for Years

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