Judge locks NC lawmakers out of Charlotte light rail stabbing investigation files
A federal judge in North Carolina has blocked the state’s General Assembly from accessing or sharing investigation files on the Charlotte light rail stabbing that killed Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska.
DeCarlos Brown Jr. was arrested in Zarutska’s Aug. 22 death and faces both a state murder charge and a federal charge of causing a death aboard mass transportation.
The case and viral video of the stabbing prompted state and national Republican lawmakers to attack Charlotte’s leaders, its criminal justice system and its Democratic policies.
Representatives with the House Oversight Committee of the North Carolina General Assembly in December demanded Mecklenburg District Attorney Spencer Merriweather send over Brown’s state murder case file as a part of a probe into “whether public safety has been subordinated to ideological initiatives at the expense of residents, transit users, and law-abiding communities.”
Brown is awaiting trial.
Merriweather told The Charlotte Observer he has never been asked to turn over investigative files in a pending case, but said a state law requires him to.
On Wednesday, Brown’s federal defense attorneys “learned that the file may have already been sent ... to the legislative committee and legislators,” according to court documents filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina. Within hours, they, along with U.S. Attorney Russ Ferguson, filed motions asking a federal judge to block lawmakers from receiving investigation files.
In a Thursday ruling, U.S. Magistrate Judge David Keesler said “release of the materials may prejudice [Brown’s] constitutional rights to due process and a fair trial.” He issued a preliminary protective order that bars Merriweather and the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department from releasing the files.
If the files have already been sent, the General Assembly is not permitted to release them, Keesler ordered.
The letter also requested Merriweather’s investigative file on the December train stabbing of Kenyon Dobie. Oscar Solarzano, a Honduran man, was arrested and charged with stabbing Dobie aboard Charlotte’s light rail train. That case is also awaiting trial.
An assistant district attorney filed a notice of intent on Wednesday to send Solarzano’s file to the committee Wednesday. A protective order that would prohibit that has not been filed in his case.
Fact check: NC House Oversight letter
Republican co-chairs of the House Oversight Committee — Rep. Jake Johnson, Rep. Brenden Jones and Rep. Harry Warren — on Dec. 19 sent nearly identical letters to Merriweather, Mayor Vi Lyles, City Manager Marcus Jones, Police Chief Estella Patterson, Sheriff Garry McFadden, County Manager Mike Bryant and Charlotte Area Transit System Interim CEO Brent Cagle.
They also asked those leaders to testify in a House Oversight Committee meeting.
The letters say that Charlotte has seen a “documented increase in violent crime” at the same time that the city has committed to “diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, the expansion of offices for equity and immigrant integration, and policies that limit or restrict cooperation with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).”
The committee said it is concerned those priorities “may be occurring concurrently with the defunding, de-prioritization, or restructuring of traditional law enforcement and public safety functions.”
Violent crime in Charlotte, however, decreased 21% in 2025, CMPD said this week.
City budgets since 2021 show that spending on police has increased by at least three percent every year from 2021 to 2025. Last year, it increased nearly nine percent.
This story was originally published January 16, 2026 at 12:00 PM with the headline "Judge locks NC lawmakers out of Charlotte light rail stabbing investigation files."
