Cooper's COVID release of heinous criminals | Pro-Palestine trespassers can return to UNC | Social justice activists march from Wilson to Raleigh
No. 163 — Feb. 8-Feb. 14, 2026
Recently released records from 2021 shed light on the thousands of offenders released early by Gov. Cooper and his appointees as part of a settlement of a COVID-related lawsuit brought by left-wing anti-incarceration organizations, including offenders who had received life sentences for murders and truly heinous crimes in Durham, Harnett, Johnston, Wake, and Vance.
A federal judge has granted a preliminary injunction allowing several pro-Palestine activists to return to protesting on the UNC-Chapel Hill campus after having been banned due to their arrest at the illegal encampment in 2023.
Left-wing demonstrations continued with an anti-ICE protest in Clayton, as well as a march from Wilson to Raleigh in protest of general left-wing “love” causes as well as the redistricting to push the 1st Congressional District into Republican hands.
Cooper’s Criminals
The brutal murder of Iryna Zarutska on a Charlotte train has once again captured national headlines with the revelation that her alleged killer was on the list of prison inmates recorded as being released early by the NC Department of Adult Correction as part of a settlement between Gov. Roy Cooper (and his appointees) and left-wing activist organizations using the COVID-19 pandemic to demand the mass release of convicts.
(The NCDAC claims that despite his inclusion on the list of early re-entries in relation to the lawsuit, neither DeCarlos Brown Jr.’s early release nor the subsequent decision not to revoke his release after an assault arrest were “affected by the COVID litigation or settlement.”)
The settlement was signed on February 25, 2021, over a year after the lawsuit had been filed by the ACLU of North Carolina, Disability Rights North Carolina, Emancipate NC, Forward Justice, and the National Juvenile Justice Network alleging that the rights of the 30,000+ prisoners in the North Carolina by being incarcerated during the pandemic.
The motivation of these radical anti-organizations was clear, such as a press release from ACLU NC making a clear demand, not for PPE or social distancing, but for Cooper to issue an executive order “to halt jail admissions, release a meaningful number of medically vulnerable people, or allow people whose sentences are nearly up to be released.”
After receiving an unfavorable ruling from Wake County Superior Court Judge Vinston Rozier Jr., the government ended up agreeing to the early release of at least 3,500 inmates, which ACLU NC hailed as “among the largest prison releases in the country achieved via COVID-19 litigation efforts.”
This month, WSOCTV obtained and released a document from the NCDAC listing the early releases of 4,234 offenders between February and August, 2021. Comparing this list of IDs to the sentencing database maintained by the NCDAC shows a recidivism rate of at least 51.6%, with 2,186 of these releases either having their release revoked or earning a subsequent conviction.
An example would be Patrick Renard Crews, who has spent the majority of the time since his eight month-early release in jail after being arrested and charged with new crimes including for shooting into a woman’s vehicle as she attempted to escape an argument with him and assaulting an officer. Crews was allowed to consolidate his charges and plead guilty and get a potential sentence of ten years reduced to only 23-37 months, which amounts to a near-immediate release when taking into account his time served.
The early releases in the document include 909 whose convictions include at least one conviction in the eleven counties covered by the Triangle Trumpet, with 465 (51.2%) matching the recidivism criteria.
An example is Najee Isiah Fevecque, who is listed as receiving an early release date of 04/01/2021 head of an original release date of 12/4/2021. Fevecque has been arrested in Wake County at least 21 times since 2013, with a post-release convictions including 10 days in jail for possession of drug paraphernalia and resisting an officer as well as 6-17 months in prison for receiving/possessing a stolen vehicle with a sentence of 6-17 months.
The early release document includes parole for 51 inmates serving life sentences, including nine whose prison records include convictions in the Triangle:
John Phillips, sentenced to life at 18 for the rape of a four-year-old girl in Durham in 1952. Phillips was described at the time as a “moron,” with the intellectual development of a seven-year-old and survived to become the oldest inmate in the North Carolina prison system.
Eric Johnson, sentenced to life for a 1992 murder in Vance County. Johnson’s prior convictions included DWI, assault, breaking and entering, and larceny in Vance and Johnston.
Herman Lee Carver, sentenced to life for first degree and a second degree murder in 1990 Cumberland County. Carver’s prior convictions included larceny of a motor vehicle in Johnston County.
Robert Vernon Jones, sentenced to life for beating/strangling his female partner to death in 1991 in Johnston County. Two months prior to the murder, Jones’ had been convicted of assault with a deadly weapon inflicting serious injury, also in Johnston.
Carlton Leroy Green, sentenced to life for second degree murder in 1993 in Vance County. Green was simultaneously sentenced to 20 years for 2nd degree sexual offense in Vance.
Sharon Randolph, sentenced to life for the armed kidnapping, rape, and robbery of a Fayetteville woman in 1983. Randolph had approached the victim and asked for a ride to work, only to pull a firearm and take her hostage after she generously agreed. Randolph and her male-codefendant stopped in Wake County to rape the victim, then continued north with her until she was able to escape in Virginia long enough to contact Arlington County Police and be rescued.
Sticardo Mandria McCullers, sentenced to life for participating in fatally beating a man with baseball bats in a night of armed robbery in Raleigh in 1992. McCullers and four other men drove from Clayton to find victims to beat and rob near the Tower Shopping Center. After one of the robbers was accidentally struck in the head by a co-conspirator while robbing the first victim, the group of criminals decided to make their next victim “suffer” like he was suffering, including a blow to the head from McCullers’ bat. (The victim was found still alive hours later, but passed due to his injuries in the following weeks.)
Barry Eugene Freeman, sentenced to life for second degree murder in Harnett County in 1985. Freeman’s prior convictions included DUI, receiving stolen goods, forgery, and check fraud in Lee, Chatham, and Wake.
William Cornell Whitley, sentenced to life for second degree murder in Wake County in 1992. Whitley’s prior convictions included breaking and entering, armed robbery, and larceny in Johnston and Wake.
More from Andrew Dunn at Longleaf Politics:
Follow-up
Judge suspends UNC’s indefinite ban on pro-Palestine activists
Federal judge orders UNC to lift campus ban against pro-Palestine protesters after 2024 clash: Court records - CBS17
Judge: UNC must allow protesters to return to campus - WRAL
Judge blocks UNC’s ban against protesters, tosses part of their suit - Carolina Journal
Judge allows protesters back on UNC campus. Duke prof plans to take court up on it - N&O
A federal judge has granted a preliminary injunction temporarily preventing the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill from enforcing trespass notices issued against three pro-Palestine activists who were arrested at the “Triangle Gaza Solidarity Encampment” in 2024.
The ruling was specifically in regards to Laila Dames, Emily Rogers, and Kathryn Newman aka Kathryn Mccaskil, three plaintiffs who are not affiliated with the university, refused an order to vacate the encampment, and accepted a deferred prosecution agreement in which their charges of second degree trespass would be dropped if they completed community service.
Although acknowledging that the demonstration was in open violation of campus policies and “presented legitimate and serious security concerns,” District Judge Thomas D. Schroeder found that the plaintiffs were likely to succeed on the claim that an indefinite ban from the UNC-CH campus was a violation of their first amendment rights, citing the fact that the area of campus primarily in question does constitute a “limited public forum,” and that an indefinite ban with an “absence of clear standards” governing how the ban could be lifted was unlikely to be reasonable.
The judge also referenced the fact that although participants in the demonstration may have posed a security concern by intimidating students and propping open doors to gain unauthorized overnight access to the surrounding buildings, the defendants in the lawsuit had not presented evidence that these specific plaintiffs had engaged in such behavior, and had not argued why an indefinite ban was necessary to pursue a legitimate goal like the safety and security of the campus.
(Although they might have engaged in as widespread civil disobedience since the encampment, demonstrators associated with the same organizers as the plaintiffs in this case have vandalized the campus in multiple instances since, and have been accused of intimidating behavior.)
Trespassing from an otherwise public area owned by the government falls into somewhat of a murky area requiring careful balance, as failing to act against troublemaking or threatening individuals can suppress the speech of those on the opposite side of an issue.
However, the same justification for removing treats can be used to stifle protesters antagonistic to the government, as in another lawsuit cited in this ruling and also previously covered by this publication, Bernstein v. Sims, where an election integrity activist sued the Wake County Board of Elections after being trespassed from the headquarters where the board’s public meetings are held:
EXCLUSIVE: Wake Co. paid $10k to settle lawsuit from election integrity activist
Last year, the Wake County Board of Elections (WCBOE) agreed to pay $10,001 to Lynn Bernstein to settle a federal lawsuit she brought over being banned from the county election headquarters, according to a settlement document exclusively obtained by This Week in the Triangle.
Previous coverage:
UNC students protest decision to ban ‘Cop City’ activist (No. 15 — Apr. 15, 2023)
Antifa UNC Law student dances into Georgia arraignment (No. 45 — Nov. 11, 2023)
“Students for Justice in Palestine” interrupt public discourse event at UNC (No. 56 — Jan. 27, 2024)
UNC students protest in favor of antifa law student banned from campus over “domestic terrorism” charges (No. 67 — Apr. 13, 2024)
UNC Students for Justice in Palestine hold “encampment” in support of anti-Israel demonstrators at Columbia University (No. 68 — Apr. 20, 2024)
Alleged domestic terrorist receives UNC award (No. 68 — Apr. 20, 2024)
Anti-Israel protesters make 2nd attempt at UNC encampment (No. 69 — Apr. 27, 2024)
UNC Pro-Palestine Encampment Shutdown Timeline (No. 70 — May 4, 2024)
Pro-Palestinian demonstrators begin third encampment at UNC (No. 71 — May 11, 2024)
Defense of American flag by UNC frat bros celebrated at RNC (No. 81 — Jul. 20, 2024)
UNC students commit vandalism spree in support of Palestine (No. 90 — Sep. 21, 2024)
Pro-Palestine leftists celebrate anniversary of October 7th attacks with “Week of Resistance” (No. 93 — Oct. 12, 2024)
UNC pro-Palestine encampment arrestees receive pretrial depositions (No. 101 — Dec. 7, 2024)
UNC pro-Palestine encampment charges - how they were resolved (No. 103 — Dec. 21, 2024)
Anniversary of “Triangle Gaza Solidarity Encampment” on UNC campus (No. 122 — May 3, 2025)
One Year Later: review and analysis of UNC pro-Palestine encampment arrests (Original Article — May 8, 2025)
Domestic Terrorism charges dismissed against UNC antifa (No. 138 — Aug. 23, 2025)
Palestine supporters vandalize UNC campus, again (No. 141 — Sep. 13, 2025)
Protest Watch
Anti-ICE activism continues with protest in Clayton
Anti-ICE rally held in Johnston County - ABC11
Clayton residents protest ICE for second time in three weeks - WRAL
Johnston County Group Announces Feb. 8 Immigration Protest - JoCo Report
Sunday, February 8, Clayton Town Square, organized by Indivisible Johnston County:
Social justice activists march from Wilson to Raleigh
Rev. Barber’s ‘Love Forward Together’ rally draws thousands to NC State Capitol - N&O
Thousands gathered at State Capitol after civil rights reverend led 50-mile march for peace, love - WRAL
Hundreds walk 50 miles in ‘Love Forward Together’ movement in North Carolina - ABC11
Love Forward Together: March for justice and unity in North Carolina ends in Raleigh - CBS17
A four day “This is Our Selma” march from Wilson organized by Rev. William Barber’s NC Poor People’s Campaign arrived in Raleigh on Saturday to protest for various left-wing causes.
The News & Observer estimated an attendance of over two thousand as the demonstrators arrived in Raleigh. The organizers claiming that several hundred had made the full 50-mile trek, but the livestream shows a group which would be more aptly described as “dozens:”
In addition to various “love”-based left-wing causes such as anti-ICE, public housing, socialized healthcare, unions, etc., the protest specifically focused on the Republican attempt to redraw the 1st Congressional district to be more favorable for Republicans. (The district, which includes Wilson, is currently represented by Democrat Don Davis who won in 2024 by 1.7 point margin.)
