RALEIGH, N.C. – Numerous North Carolina media outlets called out Michael Whatley’s lies about DeCarlos Brown Jr. and his release from prison after serving his full sentence.
Read more below:
Charlotte Observer: Fact check: Gov. Roy Cooper did not release DeCarlos Brown Jr. early from prison
Nora O’Neill
- Republicans are blaming former Gov. Roy Cooper for the death of Iryna Zarutska and arguing a COVID-era prison settlement led to her killer’s early release — a claim state prison officials dispute.
- National and local reporting this week showed that DeCarlos Brown Jr., Zarutska’s alleged killer, appears on a list of 3,500 prisoners associated with a 2021 settlement over prison conditions. Republicans have seized on the record and a Fox News headline as proof Brown was released early — promoting it with emails, social media posts and text messages. But the North Carolina Department of Adult Correction said that interpretation does not reflect what happened.
- Brown was not released early at all, spokesperson Keith Acree said. He actually served two days past his minimum release date.
- […]
- But state prison officials said Brown was not released from prison early.
- Brown received 176 days of jail credit for time served before he was sentenced for robbery with a dangerous weapon, according to the Department of Adult Correction. Brown’s minimum release date was Sept. 18, 2020, and he was released from prison custody on Sept. 20, 2020, after completing that mandatory minimum sentence. At that point, Brown began a required 12-month period of post-release supervision. The department said that release and transition to supervision were entirely unrelated to the lawsuit between the state and NAACP over prison conditions amid the pandemic that later resulted in a settlement.
- While on post-release supervision, Brown was arrested again on Feb. 6, 2021 on charges of misdemeanor assault and damage to personal property which were dismissed a year later. A preliminary revocation hearing was held on Feb. 15, 2021, and a hearing officer elected not to revoke Brown’s post-release supervision.
- The COVID-era settlement was signed on Feb. 25, 2021, which was 10 days after that hearing.
- “In short,” the department said in an email to The Charlotte Observer, “neither Brown’s release from custody nor the subsequent decision at the revocation hearing was affected by the COVID litigation or settlement.”
- Brown reached the end of his post-release supervision on Sept. 20, 2021. He was arrested again in 2024 and 2025 for misusing 911, but was released by a magistrate judge and did not serve prison time.
- Why was Brown on the list of prisoners?
- The settlement came out of a lawsuit over prison conditions during the pandemic, not an executive order to release inmates, according to Cooper’s campaign. The agreement required the state to adjust the sentences of about 3,500 people, either by allowing them to finish their sentences outside prison or by counting time served under post-release supervision.
- Because the settlement allowed the state to count certain cases retroactively to meet its terms, state prison officials said, Brown’s case was included on the list even though he had already been released from prison months earlier and his custody status was not changed by the settlement.
WBTV: “Decarlos Brown Was Not Released Early”
- ANCHOR “That’s the important part here, is this timeline. The settlement happened after Brown had already gotten out of prison.”
- REPORTER: “Yeah, 100%. He was already out of prison. He was still being supervised by parole agents, but even then they had already, had essentially already had a hearing saying we’re going to extend his supervisory probation period to September of 2021, when his sentence would originally end. The Department of Adult Corrections is saying again, period, end of story, nothing was changed because of the settlement or because of this executive order.”
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