Jury Sees Videos Of Subway Chokehold In Daniel Penny's Ongoing Manslaughter Trial

NEW YORK (AP) Jurors saw video Monday of Daniel Penny gripping a man around the neck on a New York City subway train as another passenger beseeched the Marine veteran to let go.

Two videos shot by bystanders one a high school student, the other a freelance journalist offered the anonymous jury its first direct view of the chokehold at the heart of the manslaughter trial surrounding Jordan Neely s 2023 death.

Prosecutors say the students video has never been made public before. Jurors also saw what prosecutors said was a fuller version of Mexican freelance journalist Juan Alberto Vzquezs video, part of which hed posted on social media and was widely seen.

A member of Neelys family held his head in his hands and then left the courtroom as Vzquezs video was replayed on big screens.

Prosecutors say Penny, 25, recklessly killed Neely, who was homeless and mentally ill. He had frightened passengers on the train with angry statements that some riders found threatening.

Penny has pleaded not guilty . His lawyers say he was defending himself and his fellow passengers, stepping up in one of the volatile moments that New York straphangers dread but most shy away from confronting.

Neely, 30, known to some subway riders for doing Michael Jackson impersonations, had mental health and drug problems. His family has said his life unraveled after his mother was murdered when he was a teenager and he testified at the trial that led to her boyfriends conviction.

He crossed paths with Penny an architecture student whod served four years in the Marines in a subway train on May 1, 2023.

Neely was homeless, broke, hungry, thirsty and so desperate he was willing to go to jail, he shouted at passengers who later recalled his statements to police.

He made high schooler Ivette Rosario so nervous that she thought shed pass out, she testified Monday. Shed seen outbursts on subways before, but not like that, she said.

Because of the tone, I got pretty frightened, and I got scared of what was said, said Rosario, 19. She told jurors Neely was shouting in an angry tone, like when youre fed up.

She said she looked downward, hoping the train would get to a station before anything else happened.

Then she heard the sound of someone falling, looked up and saw Neely on the floor, with Pennys arm around his neck.

The train soon stopped, and she got out but kept watching from the platform. She would soon place one of the first 911 calls about what was happening. But first, her shaking hand pressed record on her phone.

She captured video of Penny on the floor gripping Neelys head in the crook of his left arm, with his right hand atop Neelys head and of an unseen bystander saying that Neely was dying and urging, Let him go!

Rosario said she didnt see Neely specifically address or approach anyone.

But according to the defense, Neely lurched toward a woman with a stroller and said he will kill, and Penny felt he had to take action.

Prosecutors dont claim that Penny intended to kill, nor fault him for initially deciding to try to stop Neelys menacing behavior. But they say Penny went overboard by choking the man for about six minutes, even after passengers could exit the train, after two of them stayed and helped hold Neely down, and after he stopped moving for nearly a minute.

A lawyer for Neelys family maintains that whatever he might have said, it didnt justify what Penny did.

Defense attorneys say Penny kept holding onto Neely because he tried at times to get loose. Prosecutors have said Neely was fighting for survival.

Vzquez testified through a Spanish-language interpreter that Neely tried really hard to break free, first endeavoring to pull Pennys arms off his neck until another passenger pinned them down and then moving his legs.

Then, in a moment, he stopped moving, Vzquez told jurors.

He testified that hed shortened the version of the video that he posted on social media, cutting about a minute at the beginning where Penny and Neely werent moving much. Like Rosario, he also made his video after the train had stopped in the station.

The defense also challenges medical examiners finding that the chokehold killed Neely.