The Guatemalan migrant accused of setting a woman on fire and watching her burn to death on a New York City subway train returns to court Friday, just days after his initial hearing where he said he was drunk and doesn’t remember the brutal slaying.
Sebastian Zapeta, 33, was arraigned earlier this week on first-degree murder and arson charges in connection to the unknown woman’s killing at a Coney Island subway station over the weekend Brooklyn prosecutors said Mr. Zapeta told authorities he doesn’t remember what happened during the incident Sunday because he “drinks a lot of liquor.”
But prosecutors also said Mr. Zapeta identified himself in surveillance footage that captured the attack on the total stranger.
Charging documents said the defendant lit the woman’s clothing on fire with a lighter and fanned the budding flames with his shirt aboard an idling F train around 7:30 a.m. Sunday.
He then took a seat nearby and watched the woman be consumed by the fire until responding police cleared the area.
New York Police Department officials said officers nabbed Mr. Zapeta on a Midtown Manhattan subway train hours later after three high schoolers spotted the suspect and phoned police.
Police have not released the woman’s identity, but did confirm she was an adult.
Law enforcement officials told The New York Times that the victim was likely homeless and may have had trouble getting around, as indicated by a walker found near where she died.
Mr. Zapeta is an illegal immigrant from Guatemala who had been deported under the Trump administration, but had been in New York City since at least 2023.
Federal authorities said they caught the migrant crossing into Arizona in 2018, and deported him back to his home country within a week.
It’s unclear when Mr. Zapeta, who has no criminal record, crossed back into the U.S., but authorities said he listed his address as the Randall’s Island migrant shelter when receiving a transit ticket in 2023.
“It appears as though he was a migrant that was removed from the country and then came back into the country,” New York City Mayor Eric Adams told local Fox affiliate WNYW. “This is a country of immigrants … But those who violate that pursuit, we need to immediately remove them from our country.”
According to police statistics, the city’s subway system hit a 27-year high in homicides with 11 slayings after the woman’s fiery killing and an unrelated fatal stabbing in Queens on Sunday.
Mr. Zapeta is being kept behind bars while his case progresses. He has not entered a plea at this time.
• Matt Delaney can be reached at mdelaney@washingtontimes.com.