A man accused of fatally stabbing a Ukrainian refugee on a Charlotte light-rail train last year comes from a family with a long record of arrests and convictions, court records, police reports and interviews reviewed by the Daily Mail show.
The victim, 23-year-old Iryna Zarutska, had fled war in her home country and was commuting home from a pizza parlor when surveillance video captured her sitting on the light-rail car and then collapsing after an apparent attack. Authorities have charged 34-year-old Decarlos Brown Jr. with stabbing Zarutska in the neck; prosecutors have described the attack as random and unprovoked and said the two had no prior interaction.
The Daily Mail report places Brown within a broader pattern of violent incidents linked to his family, most notably the conviction of his younger brother, Stacey Dejon Brown. Stacey, now serving a 36-year sentence, was convicted in the 2012 killing of 65-year-old Robert Heym, who was shot on the same Charlotte light-rail system while walking home from a shift at a warehouse store. Court records show Stacey pleaded guilty in April 2014 to second-degree murder and multiple weapon-related and property charges stemming from a crime spree that culminated in Heym's death.
Police records obtained by the Daily Mail show Stacey had at least 10 encounters with the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department between October 2011 and October 2012; the department told the outlet that its records did not include juvenile arrests or convictions. The files detail a string of offenses, including alleged carjacking, assault on an officer, breaking and entering, theft and other robberies. One of the episodes detailed by authorities involved an October 2011 carjacking of a taxi driver at gunpoint in which the driver’s vehicle, phone, money and wallet were reportedly seized.
Investigators tied the Heym killing to a three-day crime spree in October 2012. The night before Heym was shot in the face, court records and prosecutor statements say Stacey and accomplices shot another man, Kevin Eugene Robinson, in the back with a single-barrel sawed-off shotgun during a robbery. Robinson survived but suffered serious injuries. The police also allege that, on July 19, 2012, Stacey and an accomplice used bricks to break into vehicles in a hotel parking garage and stole electronics and personal items before being arrested at the scene.
Stacey and two alleged accomplices, Roderick Crawford and Joshwah Townsend, were arrested within 24 hours of Heym's slaying, prosecutors said. Stacey ultimately was convicted on counts tied to the three incidents and received a 36-year sentence. Prison records show he has amassed dozens of infractions since his incarceration at the Eastern Correctional Institution in Maury, North Carolina, including fighting, threats to staff, possession of contraband and other serious misconduct.
Members of Brown's extended family described a troubled upbringing and repeated encounters with the criminal-justice system. Decarlos Brown Sr., the brothers' father, has prior arrests listed in public records for offenses including breaking and entering, felony conspiracy, theft, possession of stolen goods and possession of a weapon on a university campus, according to the Daily Mail.
Stacey’s twin sister, Tracey Vontrea Brown, has also faced recent criminal charges, with county records showing arrests in 2024 for misdemeanor larceny and felony conspiracy and an earlier misdemeanor shoplifting charge. Records reviewed by the Daily Mail list Tracey as both a suspect in some incidents and a victim of separate crimes, including an assault and a reported kidnapping in July 2024.
Tracey told the Daily Mail she and her siblings were removed from their parents’ care and raised in the foster system. She said Decarlos Jr. was once a protective older brother who changed after an early prison term for armed robbery. She said he struggled with mental-health problems after his release from prison in 2020, became homeless and told family members that "government-controlled materials" were influencing him. Tracey said she dropped assault charges against Decarlos after an incident in which she said he bit her hand, and she characterized her decision as rooted in sympathy and a belief that he needed treatment.
Public records and prior convictions reviewed by the outlet show Decarlos Jr.'s arrest history stretches back to at least 2007 with convictions for armed robbery, felony larceny and breaking and entering. Authorities say he was arrested in January on a charge related to misuse of 911 and reported telling officers at that time that a "man-made" material was controlling him; he was released with no bond. Prosecutors and law enforcement have said Brown was arrested after the light-rail killing.
In a jailhouse call obtained by the Daily Mail, Decarlos told his sister that the alleged attack was the result of outside forces acting in his brain. "They just lashed out on her, that's what happened," he said in the recorded call, blaming unspecified "materials" and saying "whoever was working the materials they lashed out on her." Those statements were provided to the media by the family and have not been verified by medical evidence in public records cited in the reporting.
Investigators and court filings have characterized the Zarutska killing as random and have said she did not know her alleged attacker. The stabbing has drawn national attention as a visceral example of violence on public transit and has prompted scrutiny of both the accused’s background and broader questions about public-safety and mental-health interventions.
Prosecutors are pursuing charges against Decarlos Brown Jr. in the Zarutska killing; court dockets and law enforcement statements detail the arrest and the charges, but trial proceedings and any additional evidence, including mental-health evaluations, have not been fully adjudicated. The case remains pending in Mecklenburg County courts.
The deaths of Zarutska and Heym, separated by more than a decade but connected by geography and the people involved, leave a common thread of victims who had sought better lives in Charlotte. Police and prosecutors say their inquiries into the 2012 and 2022 incidents relied on surveillance footage, witness accounts and forensic evidence; public records reviewed by the Daily Mail provide a timeline of alleged offenses and convictions that illustrates sustained criminal activity by members of the same family over many years.
Officials with the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department did not provide additional comment beyond records the department supplied to news outlets. Zarutska’s family and legal representatives have not provided public statements beyond initial reports; prosecutors have said they will present the evidence in court. The killings and the family history revealed in reporting have rekindled debate in the city about transit security, the handling of repeat offenders, and the availability of mental-health services for people coming out of prison or living on the streets.