A Manhattan Criminal Court jury heard testimony from witnesses for the first time yesterday in the case of Daniel Penny, who faces charges of second-degree manslaughter after choking a man to death on the subway on May 1st 2023. Penny placed the victim, Jordan Neely, in a choke-hold after Neely had boarded the Queens-bound F train at the 2nd Ave station in Manhattan, where he then began to act erratically – throwing his jacket on the floor, screaming that he was hungry and needed a job, as well as making vaguely threatening statements, saying that he was ready to die and was not afraid of going back to prison.
“I was very nervous” said Yvette Rosario, who recorded the incident from the subway platform after stepping off the train at the Broadway-Lafayette stop. “I have … seen escalations, but not like that.” Rosario, a high-school senior, says that she buried her face into her friend’s chest to look away from Neely’s shouting, and turned to look at the scene again when she heard Neely and Penny falling to the ground. Rosario and other passengers got off at the next stop, at which point she began recording video and called 911.
Juan Alberto Vasquez, a freelance journalist whose own video of Neely’s death was widely shared after the fact, also testified. The 59-year-old Vasquez said that he was “a bit nervous” and that Neely appeared “violent and desperate.” Jordan Neely’s father, Andre Zachery, who was in the courtroom, walked out as Vasquez’s video was played for the jury. Both Vasquez and Rosario stated that they did not see Neely wielding any weapons.
Another witness to Neely’s death, 61-year-old Larry Goodson, told the court that he “was not threatened” by Neely, nor did he “notice him threaten anyone else.” He went on to remark on Penny’s technique as he restrained Neely: “I’ve been in many fights, and I’ve never seen a choke-hold like that.” Goodson testified that he noticed stains on Neely’s pants that indicated he had soiled himself, and warned Penny that if he did not release his hold he was “going to lose him.” Goodson claimed that Penny ignored his warnings, stating that the defendant appeared “in a whole other trance” as he maintained his grip on the victim.
26-year-old Daniel Penny served four years in the Marines as an infantry squad leader, and was studying architecture at the time of the incident. Jordan Neely was 30 years when he was killed, surviving as a Michael Jackson impersonator on the streets of New York, having struggled with mental illness and drug abuse. Neely’s loved ones have said that his path in life was altered after his mother’s murder when he was 14 years old.
