The man accused of burning a sleeping woman to death inside a New York City subway train has been indicted on murder and arson charges, prosecutors announced Friday.
Sebastian Zapeta is accused by prosecutors of lighting the woman on fire on a stopped F train at Brooklyn’s Coney Island station Sunday morning, then fanning the flames with a shirt, causing her to become engulfed in the blaze, before sitting on platform bench and watching as she burned.
“This was a malicious deed. A sleeping, vulnerable woman on our subway system,” Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said after a brief court hearing where the indictment was announced.
He said Zapeta has been charged with multiple counts of murder as well as an arson charge. The top charge carries a maximum sentence of life in prison without parole.
Zapeta, 33, was not present at the hearing, and his attorney declined to comment afterward.
A formal arraignment at the state Supreme Court is scheduled for Jan. 7, 2025, when the full indictment will be unsealed.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams is urging federal authorities to pursue arson charges against Zapeta.
“Lighting another human being on fire and watching them burn alive reflects a level of evil that cannot be tolerated,” City Hall spokeswoman Kayla Mamelak said Thursday in a statement to media outlets. She confirmed the mayor has directed the NYPD to collaborate with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to explore additional charges under federal arson statutes.
The Epoch Times has reached out to ICE about Adams’s directive.
If convicted under federal arson laws for an attack resulting in death, Zapeta could face a sentence of 25 years to life. Federal arson charges for attacks on property used in interstate commerce resulting in injury carry a maximum sentence of 40 years.
Meanwhile, a conviction under New York state’s first-degree murder statute could lead to life in prison without parole, a punishment already more severe than what federal arson laws can provide.
Officers stationed at the Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue subway station responded after smelling smoke and discovered the victim “standing inside the train car fully engulfed in flames,” said Tisch. Despite efforts to extinguish the fire, the woman was pronounced dead at the scene.
The victim has yet to be publicly identified, as police are working to confirm her identity.
Disturbing video circulating on social media shows Zapeta sitting on a bench as the fire raged inside the subway car. He later left the scene but the police caught him up at the 34th Street-Herald Square station in Manhattan after a group of teenagers spotted him and called 911.
Zapeta, a Guatemala national who was deported in 2018 and illegally reentered the United States, is currently being held at Rikers Island.
While federal charges may not necessarily result in harsher penalties, Adams has said he’s willing to cooperate with ICE and President-elect Donald Trump to address crimes committed by those in the country illegally.
On Dec. 12, Adams met with incoming border czar Tom Homan at his mayoral mansion. During a press conference that followed the hour-long meeting, Adams said he was looking into an executive order that would “unravel” the city’s so-called sanctuary policies.
Homan, a former acting director of ICE tasked by Trump to carry out the largest deportation in the nation’s history, said both sides are optimistic about working together to tackle illegal immigration-fueled crimes in New York City.
