Sebastian Zapeta-Calil, the suspect accused of burning a woman to death on a New York City subway train last month, told police he has no memory of the incident because he had been drinking all night — but then appeared to recognize himself in surveillance footage showing the grisly scene, according to a transcript of an interview with detectives obtained.
Zapeta, 33, pleaded not guilty on Tuesday to charges of first-degree murder — which could send him to prison for life without parole if convicted — as well as second-degree murder and first-degree arson raps.
He’s being held without bail on Rikers Island and will appear in court again on March 12.
Zapeta is accused of approaching Debrina Kawam, 57, as she slept on a parked F train at Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue station in Brooklyn early in the morning of Dec. 22, and lighting her on fire, fanning the flames, and watching her die.
Zapeta was quickly identified as the suspect and apprehended later that day, after three teenagers tipped off law enforcement that they recognized the man seen in photos distributed to the public.
But in his first interview with detectives at the NYPD’s 60th Precinct in Coney Island, Zapeta would repeatedly inform investigators he had no memory of the incident, despite positively identifying himself in surveillance footage from the crime scene, remarking “oh, damn, that’s me” upon seeing them.
Zapeta even expressed remorse for what happened to Kawam.
“To tell you the truth, I don’t remember,” Zapeta told investigators in Spanish, per the transcript. “I didn’t mean to. But I really don’t know. I don’t know what happened, but I’m very sorry for that woman.”
The suspect said that after getting off work as a roofer in Queens, he immediately went to a bar and started drinking. He drank frequently, he admitted to detectives, and often intentionally to the point of blacking out.
“Sometimes when I drink and erase the memory and I don’t know, right,” he said. “When I wake up, I’m already in the house already sleeping. I wake up when I’m already at home. Or there are times when I wake up and I’m already at the train station.”
He recalled in detail his travel itinerary back from the bar, taking the J train from Jamaica, Queens, and switching to an A train at Broadway Junction en route to the Grant Avenue stop in East New York, Brooklyn, near the shelter where he was staying.
The following morning, he said he recalled getting on an F train at about 5 or 6 a.m., but couldn’t recall where he caught it. The next thing he remembered was being near the 18th Avenue stop on the F in Kensington, Brooklyn at 8 or 9 a.m., where he drank more beer before heading back to Queens.
“I really don’t remember how I got on the F train,” Zapeta said. “When I woke up, I was already on the F train.”
In the middle of that timeframe, around 7:30 a.m., investigators say he was in Coney Island and killed Kawam.
New York Mayor Eric Adams, through a spokesperson, has called the killing of Kawam “a level of evil that cannot be tolerated,” while the Brooklyn District Attorney, Eric Gonzalez, on Tuesday called Zapeta’s alleged actions “heinous and inhumane.”
“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. “We are determined to exact the most severe punishment for this heinous and inhumane act. Ms. Kawam and her loved ones deserve a measure of justice and New Yorkers deserve to feel safe in the subways.”
Kawam, originally from New Jersey, was not identified as the victim for more than a week after her murder due to the extent of burns about her body. She seems to have been homeless at the time of her death, and was briefly within the city’s homeless shelter system.
Zapeta’s attorneys at Brooklyn Defender Services did not immediately return a request for comment from us.
