RALEIGH — An article by Fox News questions if Decarlos Brown Jr. was released under former North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper’s COVID-era prisoner release lawsuit settlement.
At the time, the settlement was described as one of the larger COVID-related prison release efforts nationally.
Brown is the repeat offender charged with the fatal stabbing of 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska on a Charlotte light-rail train in August 2025 after a previous arrest earlier that year. He is facing a state murder charge as well as a federal charge in the case.
Fox News reported Brown’s past release is allegedly linked to a 2021 COVID-era prison settlement under Cooper’s administration, based on Republican-provided records. That lawsuit challenged prison conditions as unconstitutional over alleged inadequate measures to prevent COVID-19 spread, such as social distancing challenges in crowded facilities.
The settlement, which involved the NC NAACP as one of the plaintiffs, authorized the early release or transition of about 3,500 inmates.
“Early release” was defined in the agreement as release at least 14 days before a prisoner’s projected release date as of Feb. 15, 2021, and of the individuals involved already had upcoming scheduled release dates in 2021. The 3,500 prisoners were in addition to between 1,500 to 1,700 in monthly releases of both violent and nonviolent inmates who were finishing their sentences.
The settlement agreement had a fixed date of Feb. 15, 2021, used to decide who counted toward the 3,500 prisoners that could be deemed as “early reentries.” That date appears to be a guardrail to prevent the state from changing release rules or retroactively adding new people later who weren’t already eligible on the Feb. 15 date.
The main dispute stemming from the Fox News report and subsequent coverage is whether the settlement caused Brown’s continued supervision (which kept him out of prison after his February 2021 arrest), or if it merely retroactively counted his case toward the 3,500 total to meet the agreement’s terms.
WSOCTV reporter Joe Bruno tracked down the prisoner list and found Brown was on it but reported that prison officials said Brown was not released because of the settlement order while claiming the settlement allowed them to add prisoners to the list “retroactively.”
Prison officials also told the Charlotte Observer, “In short, neither Brown’s release from custody nor the subsequent decision at the revocation hearing was affected by the COVID litigation or settlement.”
Despite these explanations, Brown still ended up on the list.
In lieu of any original documentation of the prisoners considered when Cooper signed the agreement, the timeline of Brown’s alleged COVID-era release and the conditions of the agreement may shed some light on the matter.
Sept. 20, 2020: Brown was released from prison after completing his mandatory minimum sentence for prior convictions for armed robbery and other felonies. He was placed on post-release supervision, which is similar parole type monitoring. Court records indicate the parole end date was Sept. 21, 2021.
Feb. 6, 2021: Brown was arrested again, this time for assaulting a family member.
Feb. 15, 2021: A hearing officer reinstated Brown’s post-release supervision instead of revoking it and sending him back to prison. This is the same day as the settlement agreement’s cutoff date for prisoners to be counted as “early reentries.”
Feb. 25, 2021: Settlement agreement was formally signed.
Based on the timeline and agreement, it appears Brown’s release would have likely fallen under the third reentry definition in the agreement’s language:
“For purposes of this Agreement, an “early reentry” is defined as (i) transfer of an individual to ELC who has at least 14 days remaining until their projected release date (“PRD”), as of February 15, 2021; (ii) release of an individual at least 14 days before their PRD as of February 15, 2021; or (iii) reinstatement or restoration of an individual to post-release supervision sooner than they would otherwise have been reinstated or restored or early release of people with MAPP agreements.”
The prisoner list obtained by Bruno only gives the inmate ID number and not the names of the individuals. Those ID numbers can be looked up using the Department of Adult Correction Offender’s lookup tool. Brown’s offender number was 1414857.
Prisoners to be released under the agreement were not supposed to include violent offenders, yet that turned out not to be the case. Lawmakers claimed they were misled during a March 2021 hearing on the matter by Todd Ishee, commissioner of prisons at that time, and Tim Moose, who was the chief deputy secretary for adult correction and juvenile justice.
Moose had told lawmakers, “No one has been, is being released in this agreement that has committed a crime against a person in their current offense.”
However, Moose later apologized and clarified that his statement was technically true for one of the three ways that would trigger an early release — Extended Limits of Confinement — which lets select inmates to serve remaining time under community supervision.
The other two mechanisms were discretionary sentence credits and parole and postrelease supervision adjustments.
Discretionary sentence credits was an already existing program giving prisoners credits to reduce time served, potentially including violent offenders if they were model prisoner and still met minimum sentence requirements.
Parole and post release supervision adjustments included reinstating a prisoner to supervision or a parole program.
Republicans, including Senate Leader Phil Berger and others, blamed Cooper for the policy amid his U.S. Senate campaign, criticizing the lack of transparency and public safety risks, though Cooper’s campaign denies direct involvement and defends his record.
Cooper is currently campaigning to replace Sen. Thom Tillis in this year’s election but first must get past other candidates in the March primary. As does his likely opponent, former Republican National Committee Chair Michael Whatley, who weighed in on the settlement story.
“When he was North Carolina Governor, Roy Cooper released repeat offender DeCarlos Brown Jr., who went on to brutally murder Iryna Zarutska aboard the Charlotte light rail this past summer,” said Whatley. “Cooper said the inmates he released weren’t violent. That was a lie. Then he tried to cover it up. An innocent woman is dead, and her blood is on his hands. Instead of taking responsibility, Cooper is still lying and scrambling to hide the truth.”
It’s unclear if Brown was ever on the original list of 3,500 compiled by Cooper and his staff. Cooper’s campaign has denied Brown was on the list, and according to WSOCTV, a campaign spokesperson said anyone claiming the former governor allowed Brown’s release is “lying,” and Cooper had signed “tough on crime laws.”
The National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) issued a press release with a long list of statements from officials like NRSC Chair Sen. Tim Scott, U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson, as well as a host of N.C. Republican elected officials.
In his statement, Berger said he has the list of prisoner names.
“Roy Cooper released thousands of criminals, and he did everything he could to hide their names from you. So, I got ahold of the list and am working my way through it,” said Berger. “It’s shocking the lengths Cooper went to keep it secret. His soft-on-crime policies harm our communities and Senate Republicans won’t let that stand.”
North State Journal is awaiting a response from Berger’s office for more details about his prisoner list claim.
