After Hiram Carrero pleaded guilty in March, Judge Lewis J.Liman gave the 19-year-old a prison term that is six months longer than the mandatory minimum for arson, but shorter than the eight-year maximum federal prosecutors asked for.Prosecutors said in court filings that Carrero’s "heinous actions" on December 1, 2025, left the homeless man extensively scarred and disfigured, adding that he likely would have died if first responders hadn't immediately arrived to rush him to the hospital.Early in the morning, Carrero entered the uptown train at the 34th Street–Penn Station subway stop.
Security footage captured him setting the fire and then leaving the subway car.Hiram Carrero is taken from the New York Police Department 9th Precinct in Manhattan on December 4, 2025.(New York Daily News)NYPD INVESTIGATES AFTER HOMELESS MAN CATCHES FIRE IN MANHATTAN SUBWAY STATIONThe train traveled for more than two minutes before reaching the next station, during which the fire spread across the subway bench and engulfed the victim, who was seen on surveillance footage standing up before collapsing.Police officers with the New York Police Department arrived at the 42nd Street–Times Square station and found the homeless man on the platform with flames rising from his lap, per body camera footage."Carrero attempted to kill a sleeping, homeless man by burning him alive and leaving him trapped on a moving subway car," prosecutors said in their sentencing submission, adding that this crime was "separated from murder by mere chance."WOMAN DIES AFTER BEING SET ON FIRE WHILE SLEEPING ON NYC SUBWAY TRAIN: POLICEPolice body camera footage of the homeless man who was set on fire by Hiram Carrero on the morning of December 1, 2025.
The man is on the platform of the 42nd St-Times Square Station in Manhattan.(U.S.
Attorney's Office, Southern District of New York)Prosecutors did not view Carrero’s admission that he had been drinking and smoking marijuana before the attack as a sufficien...