A New York City high school senior who admitted setting a sleeping homeless man on fire aboard a Manhattan subway train was sentenced Tuesday to 5½ years in federal prison, with a judge saying the attack was far more serious than a simple act of arson.
Hiram Carrero, 19, pleaded guilty in March to one count of arson after prosecutors said he intentionally ignited a piece of paper that set the 56-year-old victim on fire as he slept on a northbound 3 train in December 2025.
U.S. District Judge Lewis J. Liman handed down a sentence above the mandatory minimum, citing the severity of the attack and the lasting harm suffered by the victim. Prosecutors had sought a sentence of up to eight years, arguing Carrero’s actions left the man with critical injuries and permanent scarring and disfigurement.
open image in galleryDuring his guilty plea, Carrero admitted he started the fire that injured the man during an early morning subway ride from Penn Station to Times Square.
Prosecutors described the incident as a horrifying attack on a vulnerable person, arguing that the victim’s survival came down to timing and the quick response of emergency workers.
“The victim very well could have died in this case,” prosecutor Cameron Molis said during earlier proceedings.
Authorities said surveillance footage showed the victim arriving at Times Square with his clothing and body on fire before police officers rushed in to extinguish the flames. He was taken to a hospital in critical condition.
open image in galleryProsecutors said Carrero briefly entered the train, started the fire and left the station while the victim was still burning. They argued the attack was “separated from murder by mere chance.”
Carrero’s defense attorney, Jennifer Brown, acknowledged the seriousness of the crime but asked the court to consider her client’s difficult background. In court filings, she said Carrero was born prematurely with drugs in his system and was abandoned by his biological parents after birth.
Brown also said Carrero struggled after the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted his education and described him as intellectually challenged.
open image in gallery“Words are inadequate to express the profound shame and remorse that Hiram feels,” Brown wrote.
Before his guilty plea, Carrero was initially ordered detained after prosecutors argued he posed a danger to the community. A judge cited the “heinousness of the crime” when ordering him held instead of allowing him to remain at home under supervision.
At the time of his arrest, Carrero’s lawyer said he lived with his disabled mother and helped care for her, including taking her to medical appointments.
The attack came amid a wave of high-profile incidents involving people being set on fire on public transit across the country. In a separate case, prosecutors in Chicago charged a man accused of setting a woman on fire on a train after allegedly pouring gasoline on her. In December 2024, a woman sleeping on a Brooklyn subway train was killed after authorities said a stranger set her clothing on fire.
Carrero’s case was investigated by the New York Arson and Explosives Task Force, a federal-led group involving the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, along with New York City police and fire officials.
Investigators said they identified Carrero by comparing surveillance images from the subway incident with police body-camera footage from a previous encounter. Authorities said the images showed similarities, including clothing, a backpack, and other identifying features.
Carrero has now begun serving his sentence after admitting responsibility for a crime prosecutors said nearly became a deadly attack.