Overview
- Hiram Carrero, who was 18 at the time, was sentenced to five and a half years in federal prison on June 23, 2026 for setting a piece of paper on fire next to a sleeping man on the subway.
- Prosecutors said the Dec. 1, 2025 attack left the victim critically injured with permanent scarring and argued Carrero tried to kill the man by trapping him on a moving train.
- The defense asked for the five-year mandatory minimum and urged leniency by describing Carrero’s premature birth, prenatal drug exposure, and neurodevelopmental challenges.
- Judge Lewis J. Liman imposed a sentence above the mandatory minimum after weighing prosecutors’ request to apply attempted-murder sentencing guidelines and the defense mitigation materials.
- Reporters placed the case in a wider pattern of transit fire attacks, noting a separate Coney Island subway-arson case remains pending and that the decision may shape how similar incidents are prosecuted.