Decarlos Brown has a long history of being in trouble with the law; his criminal record shows three misdemeanors between 2007 and 2009.

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.

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.

US President Donald Trump demanded the death penalty for a man charged with murdering a Ukrainian refugee on a North Carolina train - a crime the US right has turned into a political rallying point.

Decarlos Brown Jr., 34, has been charged with the murder of 23-year-old Iryna Zarutska, who was stabbed on August 22. Screengrabs posted to social media over the weekend showed several GoFundMe fundraisers had been launched for Brown Jr.

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.

Iryna Zarutska, a Ukrainian refugee, was fatally stabbed on a North Carolina train. The Justice Department has charged DeCarlos Brown Jr. with a federal crime.