Stokes, a magistrate judge in North Carolina, presided over a case involving Decarlos Brown Jr. months before he was accused of murdering a Ukrainian refugee.

Officials said Decarlos Brown Jr. stabbed Iryna Zarutska on Aug. 22 as they rode the Blue Line light rail in Charlotte, North Carolina.

In April 2014, Brown pleaded guilty to two 2013 charges of felony larceny and breaking and entering. Online court records are barren of details on these cases. A judge (online court records don’t specify who) suspended his sentence of five to 15 months in prison. Instead, the judge ordered he serve two years probation.

The calls for cash sparked immediate fury after horrific surveillance video showed a killer pulling out a pocket knife and savagely attacking the 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee on Aug. 22.

The federal charge comes amid growing questions about why Decarlos Brown Jr. was on the street despite 14 prior criminal cases before he was accused of killing 23-year-old Iryna Zarutska in an apparently random attack captured on video.

The victim had recently come to the U.S. from Ukraine to escape the war with Russia, according to a GoFundMe started by her family.

House Republicans from North Carolina are calling for the removal of a judge who previously allowed a homeless man now accused of stabbing a Ukrainian refugee out on cashless bail.

The Justice Department charged the suspect, Decarlos Brown Jr., with one count of committing an act causing death on a mass transportation system.