The mother and sister of Decarlos Brown, the suspect in the fatal stabbing of a Ukrainian woman on Charlotte light rail, say that he struggled with mental illness for years after being released from prison and that he claimed there was a "material" in his body that controlled him.

North Carolina Magistrate Judge Teresa Stoke released DeCarlos Brown Jr. months before he allegedly murdered a Ukrainian refugee.

The mother and sister of Decarlos Brown, the suspect in the fatal stabbing of a Ukrainian woman on Charlotte light rail, say that he struggled with mental illness for years after being released from prison and that he claimed there was a "material" in his body that controlled him.

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 brother of Decarlos Brown Jr. says “you can’t just let him walk free, especially because of a mental issue. He could do it again.” The 34-year-old Brown is charged with killing a woman

The Justice Department charged the man accused of fatally stabbing a Ukrainian refugee on a Charlotte light rail train with a federal crime on Tuesday, the latest escalation in a case that has sparked national scrutiny over what led to the fatal attack.

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.

Audio has surfaced of a phone call between Charlotte train stabbing suspect Decarlos Brown and his sister, Tracey Brown, just days after the deadly at.