NEW YORK – The man accused of setting a woman on fire inside a New York City subway told detectives, “Oh, damn, that’s me,” when he saw video of the attack but said he couldn’t remember anything, according to a transcript released Tuesday.
The interview was made public shortly after Sebastian Zapeta, 33, entered a plea of not guilty on murder and arson charges in a Brooklyn court. Prosecutors say he set fire to Debrina Kawam, 57, aboard a stopped train in the early morning hours of Dec. 22, fanned the flames with a shirt and watched the woman burn from a subway bench.
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Inside a Brooklyn precinct later that day, authorities described Zapeta as reacting with “disgust” and “strangeness” to the video, wiping his eyes and exclaiming in Spanish, “Oh, my goodness,” according to the transcript.
“I am very sorry. I didn’t mean to,” he then told detectives. "I don’t know what happened, but I’m very sorry for that woman.”
He added that he had been drinking heavily throughout the night and fallen asleep on the subway, but did not remember what happened next.
Zapeta told police he is a Guatemalan citizen and entered the country illegally five years ago. Immigration authorities have said he was deported in 2018. He had been living in a Brooklyn shelter and working as a roofer.
He faces a maximum sentence of life in prison without parole on the top charge.
During a brief arraignment Tuesday, Zapeta kept his gaze on the floor as his attorney entered a plea of not guilty, nodding his head slightly while a Spanish translator whispered in his ear.
He was previously arraigned last month on a criminal complaint, but in New York, all felony cases require a grand jury indictment to proceed to trial unless a defendant waives that requirement.
Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said his office will seek the maximum punishment of life in prison with no chance of parole. He said after Zapeta was indicted in December that prosecutors are pursuing the charges “under the theory that this was an intentional act” but noted the indictment includes a “depraved indifference” murder charge.
“It is difficult to fathom what could lead someone to commit the atrocious and horrific murder with which this defendant is charged,” Gonzalez said in a statement Tuesday. “Ms. Kawam and her loved ones deserve a measure of justice and New Yorkers deserve to feel safe in the subways.”
Zapeta’s lawyer didn’t respond to an email seeking comment Monday evening.
Kawam grew up in Little Falls, New Jersey, and attended Passaic Valley Regional High School, where she was a popular student, cheerleader and pancake house worker, her childhood and young adult friends told The New York Times.
In her 20s, she traveled to Jamaica, Mexico, the Bahamas and Las Vegas with friends and worked a variety of jobs that she never held too long, a friend, Cindy Certosimo Bowie told the Times. The Associated Press has left messages for possible relatives.
In the early 2000s, she worked at the pharmaceutical giant Merck, but her life took a rocky turn at some point. She went into debt, had liens filed against her and filed for bankruptcy, according to public records. A Debrina Kawam listed in court records also was arrested several times in minor crimes.
In her bankruptcy filed in 2008, she listed more than $90,000 in debt, no income and assets that included her clothes, a futon, a television and a Dodge Neon worth $800.
She briefly stayed at a New York homeless shelter after moving to the city recently, according to the Department of Social Services. It didn’t say when.
The killing has renewed discussion about safety in the nation’s largest mass transit system even as crime in the subway remains relatively rare.
Transit crime is down for the second straight year, with a 5.4% drop last year compared to 2023, according to data released by police Monday, which also showed a 3% overall drop in major crimes citywide.
Still, New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said in a Monday news conference discussing the statistics that riders simply “don’t feel safe.”
In response, she said the department will surge more than 200 officers onto subway trains and deploy more officers onto subway platforms in the 50 highest-crime stations in the city.
“We know that 78% of transit crime occurs on trains and on platforms, and that is quite obviously where our officers need to be,” Tisch said. “This is just the beginning.”