Judge Who Freed Repeat Offender Before Ukrainian Woman’s Murder Faces Calls for Ultimate PunishmentjbGNrA0_E0WV4dG4DYWVtAjExAAEeaLy7gw_Sfdu7SIozigPhlIPq8VKTP0W0xU-R2pvkhnE4FcriYdMPagbjLAs_aem_gdqMVXJejLe2Fi3o6OxOzw

The trust that ordinary people place in the justice system is fragile. Every day, Americans believe that courts, judges, and law enforcement officers will protect them, keep dangerous individuals off the streets, and balance fairness with safety. But when that trust is broken, when a single decision in a courtroom unleashes chaos that could have been prevented, outrage is not just understandable — it is inevitable.

Such outrage is now sweeping across North Carolina and beyond, ignited by a horrifying case that has left a community devastated, a family shattered, and the state’s judiciary facing questions it can no longer ignore. At the center of this firestorm is a magistrate judge whose controversial decision months ago has become the focal point of grief, fury, and demands for accountability.

A Life Cut Short
The story begins with 23-year-old Iryna Zarutska, a Ukrainian refugee who had fled the brutal realities of war in search of peace and opportunity in the United States. Like many who arrive on American soil, her hopes were simple: to build a stable life, to work hard, and to find safety in a nation that has long described itself as a beacon for the oppressed.

On an otherwise ordinary August evening, Zarutska finished her shift at a pizza shop in Charlotte, North Carolina. She boarded the city’s light rail system, perhaps tired but content, heading home as countless commuters do each day. She could not have known that her path would cross with a man whose history should have barred him from being there at all.

Sitting near her on the train was Decarlos Brown Jr. — a man with a long record of criminal convictions and documented mental illness. Without warning, without provocation, Brown launched a sudden and vicious attack. He stabbed Zarutska repeatedly. She collapsed, bleeding out on the train floor, her cries for help drowned in chaos. Passengers watched in horror, helpless to stop the brutality unfolding in front of them.

In that moment, a young woman who had already survived the turmoil of war lost her life on American soil. For her grieving family — both in Ukraine and in the U.S. — the cruelty of her death was compounded by a devastating truth: this murder was preventable.

A Judge’s Controversial Decision
The focus of outrage quickly shifted from the crime itself to the question of why Brown was free in the first place.

Earlier this year, Brown had been arrested for abusing the 911 emergency system — one of many encounters with law enforcement that revealed a pattern of instability and disregard for public order. With a criminal record spanning 14 prior convictions and a well-documented history of mental illness, Brown was hardly an unknown risk.

And yet, in January, Magistrate Judge Teresa Stokes made the fateful decision to release him. No bail was set. No conditions were imposed. Instead, Brown was freed on nothing more than a “written promise” to return to court.

That promise, unsurprisingly, meant nothing. And months later, it set the stage for the fatal encounter that claimed Iryna Zarutska’s life.

The anger now boiling over is rooted in the sense that the system did not merely fail by accident. It failed because a judge, entrusted with public safety, chose leniency where caution was required.

The Petition for Removal
The backlash against Judge Stokes has been swift and overwhelming. More than 11,000 people have signed a petition demanding her removal from the bench.

The petition states plainly:

“Why was a mentally ill, repeat offender allowed to walk free in Charlotte? After his most recent arrest — before he killed Iryna — Decarlos was released without bail by Magistrate Judge Teresa Stokes. According to North Carolina lawmakers, Judge Stokes released him ‘based solely on his written promise to appear for a future court date.’ Judge Stokes reviewed Decarlos’s lengthy criminal record, and possibly his history of mental illness, and still let him walk. We need answers and accountability.”