Misinformation continues to swirl around the brutal death of Iryna Zarutska on a light-rail train in Charlotte last year. This time, it came from the country’s largest, loudest megaphone: President Donald Trump’s State of the Union delivered on Tuesday night.
As Anna Zarutska sat in the audience, Trump highlighted her daughter’s fatal stabbing, calling the man charged in her death a “deranged monster.” DeCarlos Brown, he said “came in through open borders,” implying that Brown was an undocumented immigrant.
That is false. Brown was born in Charlotte and had a driver’s license, according to court records.
Iryna Zarutska’s killing quickly became a national story. Republicans soon began to blame local Democrats for the crime. As we previously reported, the controversy fueled a bill that the Republican-led General Assembly quickly passed and Gov. Josh Stein signed into law. Among other things, “Iryna’s Law” restricts cashless bail and seeks to revive the state’s long-dormant death penalty.
Republicans have claimed that former Gov. Roy Cooper, who is now running for a hotly contested U.S. Senate seat, released Brown early from a prison sentence for armed robbery and that Cooper bears some responsibility for the killing. The allegations were tied to a February 2021 settlement agreement the Democrat’s administration reached with advocacy groups to release 3,500 nonviolent offenders to reduce crowding in state prisons during the pandemic. Brown appeared on a list of prisoners who were released early under that agreement.
But by the time Cooper agreed to the settlement, Brown had already been released from prison. He left on September 20, 2020 after serving a 73-month mandatory minimum sentence and was supposed to be on post-release supervision for another year. That status was in danger of being revoked, however, after he was arrested for allegedly assaulting his sister. Those charges were dismissed, and after a hearing, prison officials declined to revoke his post-release supervision. It expired September 20, 2021.
State prison officials say Brown’s participation in post-release supervision is the reason he ended up on the early-release list.
Brown, 34, had a history of mental health problems and a lengthy criminal record that included shoplifting, breaking and entering, and the armed robbery that landed him in prison for five years. His last criminal charge before he was charged in Zarutska’s death was for misusing 911.
He is now facing a possible death sentence if convicted in either state or federal court. Brown is being evaluated for his mental capacity to stand trial.
Asked to comment, the White House did not explain why Trump said “open borders” were connected to the killing. “Democrats protect murderers and illegal aliens over American citizens,” spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said.