Illegal Indicted After Allegedly Burning Woman To Death On NYC Subway

The illegal immigrant accused of setting a woman on fire on a New York City subway has been indicted by a grand jury.

Sebastian Zapeta, 33, was indicted on Friday, a prosecutor told the Associated Press. The attack occurred on Sunday, after which Zapeta was arrested. He was charged with murder and arson on Monday, and a grand jury returned an indictment on Friday.

Charges come from a formal accusation made by a prosecutor, whereas an indictment comes from a grand jury based on the prosecutor’s evidence.

Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez told reporters that the indictment would be unsealed on January 7, and that Zapeta faces life in prison without parole if convicted of the top charge.

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“This was a malicious deed. A sleeping, vulnerable woman on our subway system,” Gonzalez told reporters, according to the AP.

The woman was attacked on Sunday, and Zapeta can be seen on footage watching the woman, who has not been identified, stand in the subway car while burning to death. The footage also shows other passengers and even a police officer walking by without stopping to help.

Investigators reportedly said Zapeta and the woman didn’t know each other and had no interaction before Zapeta lit a lighter and tossed it on her.

“The suspect used what we believe to be a lighter to ignite the victim’s clothing, which became fully engulfed in a matter of seconds,” NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said at a press conference on Sunday.

Officers and a transit worker grabbed a fire extinguisher and attempted to save the woman, but she died on the scene, CBS reported.

“Unbeknownst to the officers who responded, the suspect had stayed on the scene and was seated on a bench on the platform just outside the train car, and the body worn cameras on the responding officers produced a very clear, detailed look at the killer,” Tisch said on Sunday. “Three high school age New Yorkers called 911 to say that they recognize the suspect. They saw something and they said something, and they did something.”

Zapeta reportedly entered the U.S. illegally in 2018 during the first Trump administration, but was deported within days, the New York Post reported. The man then re-entered the U.S. again and made his way to New York, where he was living in a migrant shelter.

The Post reported that it is unknown how long the suspect has been in New York, but law enforcement sources told the outlet that the man stayed at multiple taxpayer-funded migrant shelters around New York City. Those same sources told the Post that the suspect’s previous criminal history is “largely clean” except for entering the country illegally.