Man indicted in burning death of woman on New York City subway train

The man accused of burning a woman to death inside a New York City subway train has been indicted on state charges, a prosecutor said on Friday.

The development comes days after Sebastian Zapeta’s arrest and subsequent police questioning, in which authorities say he claimed not to know what had happened although he identified himself in photos and surveillance video showing the fire being lit.

Zapeta’s indictment will remain under seal until he is arraigned on the new charges, likely in a few weeks, as is standard in New York. He remains jailed at the city’s Rikers Island complex.

The harrowing episode on Sunday morning on a stopped F train at Brooklyn’s Coney Island station has renewed concerns about safety in the nation’s largest mass transit system.

Zapeta, 33, who federal immigration officials said is a Guatemalan citizen who entered the US illegally, was initially charged in a criminal complaint with murder and arson.

Such filings are often a first step in the criminal process because, in New York, all felony cases require a grand jury indictment to proceed to trial unless a defendant waives that requirement.

According to prosecutors, Zapeta approached the woman who may have been sleeping, set her clothing on fire with a lighter and then fanned the flames with a shirt. She has yet to be identified.