Trial of Daniel Penny in NYC subway chokehold death continues with bodycam video of witness statements
NEW YORK — More police-worn body camera footage was played in court Friday on day four of witness testimony in the trial of Daniel Penny.
Penny, a Marine veteran, has pleaded not guilty in connection with the chokehold death of Jordan Neely, 30, on board a subway train last year.
Prosecutors argue Penny's intentions were good, but that he used too much force in placing Neely in a chokehold for nearly six minutes, while the defense says Penny was trying to protect other riders on the train.
"The whole train was freaked out"
On cross examination of the prosecution's witnesses, the defense played police-worn body camera video of witness statements to responding officers about what happened when Neely entered an F train on May 1, 2023.
"The whole train was freaked out. He was either gonna, like, pull a gun, a knife or like," one woman says.
"He said, 'I'm willing to die, I'm willing to die,'" another woman says.
In another video, that same woman says, "He scared the living daylights out of everybody."
That witness told the jury she's been riding the subway for over 50 years and has been threatened before, but this was the first time she was actually scared. She described Neely as resisting when Penny put Neely in a chokehold to restrain him.
"Not a hard chokehold, just enough to secure him, and the guy fought," she says in the bodycam video.
She testified she left to go to the conductor and then also pressed an intercom button in the station to see when police might arrive because it had been a while. She also said she went over to thank Penny after.
"This felt different to me"
Another woman on the train with her 5-year-old son told the jury, "I've taken the subway for over 30 years and I've seen a lot of unstable people and this felt different to me."
She demonstrated for the jury how she saw Neely lunging at people. The witness said when Penny took Neely to the ground, "I felt very relieved because I was scared for my son."
She was shocked to read in the paper that Neely had died because she said it "didn't seem like his breathing was under distress."
"We got to see what the riders on that subway train that were trapped in that underground subway car with Jordan Neely were experiencing," defense attorney Thomas Kenniff said.
During opening statements, the prosecution said they plan to call the medical examiner, as well as Penny's martial arts instructor in the Marines to the stand.
"I just believe in the prosecution. I believe in the justice for Jordan Neely," said Neely's uncle Christopher Neely.
There is no court Monday in observance of Veterans Day. The trial resumes Tuesday.
