The man accused of burning a woman to death inside a New York City subway train has been indicted on state charges, a prosecutor said on Friday.
The development comes days after Sebastian Zapeta’s arrest and police questioning, in which authorities say he claimed not to know what had happened although he identified himself in photos and surveillance video showing the fire being lit.
Zapeta’s indictment will remain under seal until he is arraigned on the new charges, as is standard in New York. He remains jailed at the city’s Rikers Island complex.
The harrowing episode on Sunday morning on a stopped F train at Brooklyn’s Coney Island station.
Zapeta, 33, who federal immigration officials said is a Guatemalan citizen who entered the US illegally, was initially charged in a criminal complaint with murder and arson.
Such filings are often a first step in the criminal process because, in New York, all felony cases require a grand jury indictment to proceed to trial unless a defendant waives that requirement.
According to prosecutors, Zapeta approached the woman who may have been sleeping, set her clothing on fire with a lighter and then fanned the flames with a shirt before sitting on platform bench and watching as she burned.
She has yet to be identified.
“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. The indictment will be unsealed on January 7.
Zapeta was not present at the hearing, and his lawyer declined to comment afterwards.
Mr Gonzalez told reporters that police and medical examiners are working to identify the woman using fingerprints and advanced DNA techniques, while also retracing her steps before the killing.
“Our hearts go out not only to this victim, but we know that there’s a family,” Mr Gonzalez said.
“Just because someone appears to have been living in the situation of homelessness does not mean that there’s not going to be family devastated by the tragic way she lost her life.”
A Brooklyn address for Zapeta released by police after his arrest matches a shelter that provides housing and substance abuse support. Federal immigration officials said he was deported in 2018 but returned to the US illegally some time after that.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams has directed police to work with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s investigative team to explore criminal charges against Zapeta under the federal arson statute, a spokesperson for the mayor’s office said this week.
Mr Gonzalez argued on Friday that the state charges brought by his office could result in a more severe penalty.
“I have a lot of confidence in the people of Brooklyn and the people who come and serve on jury duty here, and I think that this crime took place in New York City, in Brooklyn, and that the people of this county should serve on the jury there,” Mr Gonzalez said.
