Man charged with murder and arson in New York subway killing
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A man has been charged with burning a woman to death on a New York subway train, prosecutors said. Sebastian Zapeta was arrested and charged with murder and arson after the attack on Sunday morning on a stopped F train in Brooklyn’s Coney Island station.
Authorities say he claimed not to know what had happened although he identified himself in photos and surveillance video showing the fire being lit. The indictment against Zapeta will remain private until he is formally arraigned, as is standard in New York. He remains jailed at the city's Rikers Island complex.
According to prosecutors, Zapeta, 33, who officials said is a Guatemalan citizen who entered the US illegally, 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.