Guatemalan illegal immigrant indicted on murder charges after woman burned alive on NYC subway

The Guatemalan illegal immigrant accused of setting a woman on fire where she then burned to death on a New York City subway before Christmas has been indicted on murder charges.  

Sebastian Zapeta, 33, who had been previously deported from the United States, was indicted on one charge of first-degree murder, three counts of second-degree murder, and one count of arson after a woman was burned to death on the F train in Brooklyn, New York on Sunday, according to Fox News. The indictment was filed on Thursday and Zapeta is set to be arraigned in court on January 7 where the filing will be unsealed.  

Cell phone footage captured the incident, showing Zapeta fanning the flames as they engulfed the woman and then sitting on a bench gawking at the scene as she burned to death. Officers arrived as the woman burned.

Zapeta was arrested by the police after police were alerted to his presence by teens who saw him at the Jay Street-Metrotech subway station, further down the F line. Officers found a lighter in his pocket. He claimed that he could not remember the woman's death because he was too drunk at the time.

"As the train pulled into the station, the suspect calmly walked up to the victim," Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said on Sunday. "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." 

Zapeta's attorney asked the judge to waive the illegal immigrant's appearance before the judge for the indictment, which was granted. The burn victim is yet to be identified days later, with authorities possibly working to identify he unknown victim by dental records due to the severity of the burns.