The person accused of burning a sleeping lady to dying inside a New York Metropolis subway prepare is about to be arraigned Tuesday on homicide and arson costs.
Sebastian Zapeta, 33, will seem in Brooklyn courtroom in reference to the killing of Debrina Kawam, 57.
Prosecutors say Zapeta lit the New Jersey native on hearth on a stopped F prepare at Brooklyn’s Coney Island station on Dec. 22. Zapeta then fanned the flames with a shirt earlier than sitting on a platform bench and watching as Kawam burned, they allege.
Prosecutors say Zapeta confirmed to police he was the person in surveillance photographs and movies of the hearth however mentioned he drinks quite a lot of alcohol and didn’t recall what occurred.
Zapeta, a Guatemalan citizen who authorities say entered the nation illegally after being deported in 2018, faces 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.
He was beforehand arraigned on a prison criticism, however in New York, all felony circumstances require a grand jury indictment to proceed to trial until a defendant waives that requirement.
Prosecutors with Brooklyn District Legal professional Eric Gonzalez’s workplace introduced Zapeta had been indicted in late December.
The killing has renewed dialogue about security within the nation’s largest mass transit system whilst crime within the subway stays comparatively uncommon.
Transit crime is down for the second straight 12 months, with a 5.4% drop final 12 months in comparison with 2023, in accordance with information launched by police Monday, which additionally confirmed a 3% total drop in main crimes citywide.
In response, she mentioned the division will surge greater than 200 officers onto subway trains and deploy extra officers onto subway platforms within the 50 highest-crime stations within the metropolis.
“We know that 78% of transit crime occurs on trains and on platforms, and that is quite obviously where our officers need to be,” Tisch mentioned. “That is just the start.”
