NEW YORK (AP) — The person accused of burning a sleeping lady to dying inside a New York Metropolis subway prepare has been indicted on homicide and arson fees, a prosecutor mentioned on Friday, as authorities proceed working to substantiate the sufferer’s identification.
The indictment comes days after Sebastian Zapeta’s arrest and subsequent police questioning, wherein authorities say he claimed to not know what had occurred however recognized himself in images and surveillance video displaying the hearth being lit.
Brooklyn District Legal professional Eric Gonzalez informed reporters the indictment will probably be unsealed on Jan. 7 and that Zapeta has been charged with a number of counts of homicide in addition to an arson cost. The highest cost carries a most sentence of life in jail with out parole.
“This was a malicious deed. A sleeping, vulnerable woman on our subway system,” Gonzalez mentioned.
Zapeta, 33, who federal immigration officers mentioned is a Guatemalan citizen who entered the U.S. illegally, was initially charged in a legal criticism with homicide and arson. Such filings are sometimes a primary step within the legal course of as a result of, in New York, all felony circumstances require a grand jury indictment to proceed to trial except a defendant waives that requirement.
An lawyer representing Zapeta declined to remark.
Authorities say Zapeta approached the lady, who was immobile and regarded as asleep, on a stopped F prepare at Brooklyn’s Coney Island station, and set her clothes on fireplace with a lighter on Sunday morning. He fanned the flames with a shirt, inflicting her to turn out to be engulfed in flames, authorities mentioned.
Zapeta then sat on a bench on the platform and watched as she burned, prosecutors allege. The girl was pronounced useless on the scene. Police took Zapeta into custody whereas he was using a prepare on the identical line later that day.
Gonzalez informed reporters on Friday that police and medical experts are working to determine the lady utilizing fingerprints and superior DNA methods, whereas additionally retracing her steps earlier than the killing.
A Brooklyn tackle for Zapeta launched by police after his arrest matches a shelter that gives housing and substance abuse help.
Federal immigration officers mentioned he was deported in 2018 however returned to the U.S. illegally someday after that.
The harrowing episode has renewed issues about security within the nation’s largest mass transit system.
Total, crime within the subway is comparatively uncommon, with trains and platforms usually as secure as some other public place in New York Metropolis. Police information reveals main crimes had been down this yr via November, in comparison with the identical interval in 2023.
However homicides had been up, with 9 killings via November versus 5 throughout the identical time-frame final yr. That determine doesn’t embody the lady who was burned to dying, nor a person who was fatally stabbed at a Queens subway station the identical day.
Excessive-profile assaults resembling stabbings and shovings additionally put many riders on edge in a metropolis the place thousands and thousands experience the rails daily.
“When you have these incidents, it overshadows the success and it plays on the psyche of New Yorkers,” mentioned New York Metropolis Mayor Eric Adams in a televised interview earlier this week, noting that many high-profile incidents contain individuals with psychological well being points.
Adams, a Democrat, has directed police to work with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement ‘s investigative team to explore criminal charges against Zapeta under the federal arson statute, according to a spokesperson for the mayor’s workplace.
Gonzalez informed reporters Friday that the costs introduced by his workplace might lead to a extra extreme penalty, with the chance that Zapeta may very well be sentenced to life with out parole.