Man accused of murdering Iryna Zarutska found not competent to stand trial.

 

Iryna Zarutska before her death. New York Post.

Decarlos Brown Jr., the man accused of brutally murdering Iryna Zarutska in Charlotte North Carolina has been found not competent to stand trial. New York Post. The finding complicates his state murder charges and will delay the trial 180 days. If the judge in the case decides to accept the report, charges against Brown would be dismissed without prejudice. Under North Carolina law a defendant is found incompetent if they can't understand the charges against them and can't assist with their own defense. Brown is in federal custody for additional charges of violence against a railroad carrier, but has not been mentally evaluated in that case. Zarutska's murder caused massive outrage after it was caught on video and it was revealed that Brown was a habitual offender that was still on the street.  

My Comment:

This is not an unexpected outcome but folks are not going to be happy with it at all. The Iryna Zarutska case was hugely important and anything other than a life sentence or death penalty for Decarlos Brown Jr. is going to be extremely unpopular at the least, and could even lead to changes to how people are found incompetent to stand trial. 

To review, Zarutska was an Ukrainian refugee that fled the war. She was on her way home for work on a Charlotte light rail car. Decarlos Brown Jr. stabbed her in the neck and she died. High quality video of this murder were posted by the government and caused extreme outrage given the pitiful way she died and the total lack of remorse shown by Brown. 

Decarlos Brown Jr. was mentally ill. He was schizophrenic and obviously unwell. But mere mental illness isn't enough to declare someone not competent to stand trial. In order to do so you can't be able to understand the charges against you or help with your defense. It's supposed to be a high bar to clear and without seeing him personally I don't know if he clears that bar or not. 

People are also pointing out that if Brown was so out of it that he can't even understand the charges against him, why was he on the street in the first place? Decarlos Brown Jr. was a menace, having been arrested multiple times, some of them violent. But soft on crime laws let him out on the street and he also wasn't committed. Folks aren't going to tolerate a system where a man can't be held for his crimes and can't be sent to a mental hospital  

The murder of Zarutska might change things, especially in North Carolina. There is already legislation there to make it easier to hold people who have serious mental health concerns and if Brown is found to be permanently unable to stand trial and the case(s) gets dismissed the calls for changes will be even louder. 

Regardless, folks aren't going to be happy about this regardless of the outcome. I do understand that there should be some standards for trying people who are so out of it that they can't even show up in court, but there also has to be some justice. Given the horrific nature of the crime and the outrage already being about how Brown seemed to be immune to actual consequences for his actions, I can't see people accepting anything other than a long prison sentence or an execution.