NEW YORK (AP) — The person accused of burning a lady to loss of life inside a New York Metropolis subway prepare has been indicted on homicide and arson prices, a prosecutor mentioned on Friday, as authorities proceed working to verify the sufferer’s identification.
The indictment comes days after Sebastian Zapeta’s arrest and subsequent police questioning, through which authorities say he claimed to not know what had occurred however recognized himself in images and surveillance video displaying the hearth being lit.
Zapeta’s indictment will probably be unsealed on Jan. 7, in keeping with prosecutors. Brooklyn District Lawyer Eric Gonzalez informed reporters 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.
Zapeta, 33, who federal immigration officers mentioned is a Guatemalan citizen who entered the U.S. illegally, was initially charged in a felony grievance with homicide and arson. Such filings are sometimes a primary step within the felony course of as a result of, in New York, all felony circumstances require a grand jury indictment to proceed to trial until a defendant waives that requirement.
Authorities say Zapeta approached the lady, who may need been sleeping on the prepare, 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 grow 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 lifeless on the scene.
Gonzalez informed reporters on Friday that police and health workers are working to establish the lady utilizing fingerprints and superior DNA methods, whereas additionally retracing her steps earlier than the killing.
Police took Zapeta into custody whereas he was driving a prepare on the identical line later that day.
A Brooklyn deal with 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 typically as protected as another public place in New York Metropolis. Police knowledge exhibits main crimes have been down this yr by means of November, in comparison with the identical interval in 2023.
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However homicides have been up, with 9 killings by means of November versus 5 throughout the identical timeframe final yr. That determine doesn’t embrace the lady who was burned to loss of life, nor a person who was fatally stabbed at a Queens subway station the identical day.
Excessive-profile incidents reminiscent of stabbings and shovings additionally put many riders on edge in a metropolis the place thousands and thousands trip the rails on daily basis.
“When you could have these incidents, it overshadows the success and it performs 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 folks with psychological well being points.