19-year-old sentenced to 5.5 years for subway arson

A 19-year-old man was sentenced to five and a half years in prison on Tuesday, June 23, 2026, for setting a sleeping homeless man on fire aboard a New York City subway train last December. Hiram Carrero received the sentence from Judge Lewis J. Liman in Manhattan federal court after pleading guilty to arson in March.

The attack occurred in the early morning of December 1, 2025. Surveillance footage showed Carrero boarding an uptown No. 3 train at the 34th Street-Penn Station subway stop, lighting a piece of paper on fire, and using it to ignite the clothing of a 56-year-old homeless man who was asleep on a bench. Carrero then exited the train at Penn Station as the doors closed, leaving the victim alone in the moving, burning subway car.

The train traveled for more than two minutes to the 42nd Street-Times Square station, where the victim, with his legs engulfed in flames, stumbled onto the platform. First responders from the New York Police Department and Fire Department extinguished the blaze. The victim was rushed to a hospital in critical condition, suffering severe burn injuries that prosecutors said resulted in permanent, extensive scarring and disfigurement. Officials...