A courtroom listening to is scheduled Friday for the person accused of setting a lady on hearth on a New York Metropolis subway practice and fanning the flames with a shirt as she burned to loss of life.
Sebastian Zapeta has been charged with two counts of homicide and one depend of arson for the apparently random assault, which occurred early Sunday morning on a practice stopped in Brooklyn.
The 33-year-old synthetic his first courtroom look earlier within the week. He was not required to enter a plea, and his legal professional has not responded to requests for remark.
The sufferer has not but been publicly recognized by police.
Zapeta, who federal immigration officers mentioned is a Guatemalan citizen who entered the U.S. illegally, has been jailed on the metropolis’s Rikers Island complicated.
Authorities say Zapeta approached the lady, who may need been sleeping on the practice on the Coney Island station cease, and set her clothes on hearth with a lighter. He waved a shirt at her to fan the fireplace, inflicting her to develop into engulfed in flames, prosecutor Ari Rottenberg mentioned in the course of the courtroom look Tuesday.
Zapeta then sat on a bench on the platform and watched as she burned, prosecutors allege. The girl was pronounced lifeless on the scene.
Police took Zapeta into custody whereas he was using a practice on the identical line later that day.
Zapeta instructed investigators that he drinks a number of liquor and didn’t know what had occurred, in accordance with Rottenberg. Nonetheless, Zapeta did establish himself in pictures and surveillance video displaying the fireplace being lit, the prosecutor mentioned.
A Brooklyn deal with for Zapeta launched by police after his arrest matches a shelter that gives housing and substance abuse assist.
Federal immigration officers mentioned he was deported in 2018 however returned to the U.S. illegally someday after that.
