Charlotte, North Carolina – man The accused in the fatal stabbing A Ukrainian refugee aboard a commuter train in North Carolina cannot currently be prosecuted for his mental illness and will undergo medical treatment to try to regain his competency, a federal judge ruled Tuesday.
DeCarlos Brown Jr., 35 years old He faces a federal charge Causing death on a mass transit system in the killing of 23-year-old Irina Zarutska in Charlotte is a charge Punishable by death. A separate state case against Brown in which he is charged with first-degree murder is on pause pending the outcome of the federal case.
At the request of Brown’s attorneys, U.S. District Judge Kenneth D. Bell declared their client not currently competent to stand trial and ordered him to spend up to four months in a prison medical facility to try to regain his competency.
Defense attorneys said in a lawsuit Tuesday that Brown insisted on providing the judge with the following information: “I would like to tell the court that I have a physical emergency. Someone has full access to my body and they are wrongly controlling me. Law enforcement refuses to investigate. It requires an investigation. In describing the technology that someone was using, I was wrongly diagnosed as having schizophrenia.”
They wrote that Brown told his attorney that he wanted a court order directing law enforcement to investigate the emergency in his body.
A forensic evaluation by federal mental health examiners was filed under seal in the federal case in April. It found that Brown “is not currently competent to stand trial, but his prognosis for regaining competency is favorable with appropriate drug treatment,” the judge wrote in his order.
Bell wrote that Brown “suffers from a mental disease or defect that renders him incapable of understanding the nature and consequences of actions or properly assisting in his defense.”
The judge ordered Brown to be placed in the custody of the prosecutor for hospital treatment “to determine whether there is a substantial likelihood” that Brown will be able to proceed “in the foreseeable future.”
Once that period expires, the judge will determine whether Brown has regained his competency, whether the case can move forward, whether continued treatment is needed or whether Brown cannot be made competent, the judge wrote.