The person accused of burning a girl to demise at a New York Town subway station was once indicted on homicide and arson fees, a prosecutor stated Friday, as government proceed to paintings to substantiate the identification of the sufferer.
The indictment comes days after Sebastián Zapeta’s arrest and next police interrogation, during which government say he claimed to not know what had came about, even though he recognized himself in pictures and surveillance movies appearing the fireplace.
Brooklyn District Lawyer Eric Gonzalez instructed newshounds that the indictment might be unsealed on January 7 and that Zapeta has been charged with a number of counts of homicide in addition to one rely of arson. The highest price carries a sentence of existence in jail with out the potential of parole.
“It was once a malicious act. A napping and inclined lady in our subway device,” González stated.
Zapeta, 33, who federal immigration government say is a Guatemalan citizen who entered the USA illegally, was once to start with charged with homicide and arson in a felony grievance.
Such indictments are frequently a primary step within the felony procedure as a result of, in New York, all criminal instances require a grand jury indictment to continue to trial, except the defendant waives that requirement.
The legal professional representing Zapeta declined to remark.
Government say Zapeta approached the girl, who was once immobile and believed to be asleep, on the Coney Island station forestall, and set her garments on hearth with a lighter Sunday morning. He waved a blouse at her to fan the fireplace, inflicting the girl to develop into engulfed in flames, government stated.
Later, Zapeta sat on a bench at the platform and watched as she burned, prosecutors stated. The girl was once pronounced lifeless on the scene. Police later detained Zapeta whilst he was once touring on a teach at the identical line.
Gonzalez instructed newshounds Friday that police and clinical examiners are operating to spot the girl the use of fingerprints and complex DNA tactics, whilst tracing her steps prior to the homicide.
Zapeta’s Brooklyn cope with, launched through police after his arrest, is a safe haven that gives housing and make stronger for folks affected by substance abuse.
Federal immigration government stated he was once deported in 2018, however returned to the USA illegally someday after that date.
The horrible episode has renewed considerations about protection within the nation’s biggest public transportation device.
Usually, crime at the subway is reasonably peculiar, and the trains and platforms are normally as secure as some other public position in New York Town. Police knowledge presentations that main crimes lowered this 12 months till November, in comparison to the similar duration in 2023.
However homicides greater, with 9 murders recorded thru November in comparison to 5 throughout the similar duration closing 12 months. That determine does now not come with the girl who was once burned to demise or the person who was once fatally stabbed in a Queens subway station at the identical day.
Top-profile assaults, equivalent to stabbings and violent shoving, additionally make many commuters frightened in a town the place hundreds of thousands of folks use the subway on a daily basis.
“When those incidents happen, good fortune is overshadowed and it impacts the psyche of New Yorkers,” New York Mayor Eric Adams stated in a televised interview previous this week, noting that during many high-profile incidents repercussion folks with psychological well being issues are concerned.
Adams, who’s a Democrat, has ordered police to collaborate with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement investigative group to review the potential of submitting felony fees towards Zapeta below the law. federal legislation on arson, in line with a spokesman for the mayor’s administrative center.
Gonzalez instructed newshounds Friday that the costs introduced through his administrative center may result in a harsher sentence, with the likelihood that Zapeta may well be sentenced to existence in jail with out parole.
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