The suspect accused of burning subway cars, Sebastian Zapeta, appeared in court in Brooklyn

Sebastian Zapeta, the Guatemalan man accused of setting fire to a sleeping subway passenger and watching him burn to death in a subway car in Brooklyn, pleaded not guilty to murder and arson on Tuesday.

The suspect, 33, was charged with murder, three counts of murder, and arson.

Zapeta listened through an interpreter and did not speak during the 4-minute hearing. His lawyer, in the end, said his client needs medical help, but further details were not available.

Zapeta entered the US illegally in 2018, according to authorities. He was exiled, and returned to the country at an unknown time.

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He headed to New York and on December 22 set fire to a woman while she was sleeping on a subway bench.

Surveillance footage shows a man allegedly setting a woman on fire in a Brooklyn subway while she slept on Dec. 22, 2024. (NYPD)

The victim has been identified as 57-year-old Debrina Kawam of Toms River, New Jersey. He was so badly burned that it took more than a week to identify his remains.

Sebastian Zapeta will appear in court in Brooklyn, New York on Tuesday, January 7, 2025. Zapeta is charged with murder and arson for allegedly burning Debrina Kawam as she slept on the New York City subway. (Rashid Umar Abbasi of Fox News Digital)

Mayor Eric Adams, a former NYPD captain, said the much-watched video of the attack was so distorted that he couldn’t finish watching it.

Kawam was sitting alone, believed to be asleep, on the F train at the Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue station in Brooklyn.

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Sebastian Zapeta will appear in court in Brooklyn, New York on Tuesday, January 7, 2025. Zapeta is charged with murder and arson for allegedly burning Debrina Kawam as she slept on the New York City subway. (Rashid Umar Abbasi of Fox News Digital)

“As the train pulled into the station, the suspect walked calmly toward the victim,” New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch told reporters at a press conference. “The suspect used what we believe to be a lighter to set fire to the victim’s property, which ended up being all over the place in a matter of seconds.”

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Sebastian Zapeta, accused of burning a woman inside a New York City subway, appears in court, Tuesday, December 24, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Curtis Means by Pool)

Then the man got out of the car and went to a nearby waiting bench, sat down, and watched as help arrived. The police who responded were already at the station, and the public transport worker got hold of the firefighter. The suspect even appeared on body camera video, Tisch said.

The suspect was arrested after three children who were on another subway train saw that he appeared on a wanted paper and called 911. He was detained at the next stop.

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Police officers patrol the F train platform at the Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue station, Thursday, Dec. 26, 2024, in New York. (AP)

Zapeta faces a maximum sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole if convicted.

The NYPD released year-end crime statistics for 2024 on Monday, showing an overall decrease in crime and an increase in arrests. However, the number of people killed in the subway system has doubled compared to 2023.

Zapeta will return to court on March 12.

Fox News’ Greg Wehner and Michael Dorgan contributed to this report.