Jury sees never-before-seen video of subway chokehold during Daniel Penny trial
NEW YORK CITY (WABC) -- 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 student's video has never been made public before. Jurors also saw what prosecutors said was a fuller version of Mexican freelance journalist Juan Alberto Vázquez's video, part of which he'd posted on social media and was widely seen.
A member of Neely's family held his head in his hands and then left the courtroom as Vázquez's video was replayed on big screens.
The first subway passenger to testify was a now 19-year-old woman from the Bronx who was on her way home from her high school during the incident in May 2023.
Ivette Rosario, who was 17 at the time, testified about the moments before she started recording a video.
Neely walked onto the train behind her, ranting about being homeless, and hungry, taking off his sweater and throwing it on the floor. She said she was so nervous that she dropped her head on her friend's chest, but heard the sound of someone, and looked up and saw Penny with a chokehold on Neely.
Rosario said she got off train, her hands shaking by what she'd seen, and called 911. She testified that she never saw Penny let go or loosen the chokehold.
She captured video of Penny on the floor - gripping Neely's head in the crook of his left arm, with his right hand atop Neely's head - and of an unseen bystander saying that Neely was dying and urging, "Let him go!"
Rosario said she didn't 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 don't claim that Penny intended to kill, nor fault him for initially deciding to try to stop Neely's 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 Neely's family maintains that whatever he might have said, it didn't justify what Penny did.
Vázquez testified through a Spanish-language interpreter that Neely "tried really hard to break free," first endeavoring to pull Penny's arms off his neck - until another passenger pinned them down - and then moving his legs.
Then, "in a moment, he stopped moving," Vázquez told jurors.
He testified that he'd shortened the version of the video that he posted on social media, cutting about a minute at the beginning where Penny and Neely weren't moving much. Like Rosario, he also made his video after the train had stopped in the station.
A third eyewitness, a 61-year-old man, testified that he pleaded with Penny, "if you don't let him go, and that's the state, we're going to lose him."
He said that a man seen on video grabbing Neely's arms told Penny several times, "I will hold his hands so you can release the chokehold" but Penny "did not respond to myself, nor did he respond to the person who came to assist."
Never before seen video was also introduced Friday that showed the moments after the controversial chokehold death of Neely, as lawyers spar over whether or not the actions taken by Penny were over the top, or courageous.
Penny faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted of involuntary manslaughter.
The trial is expected to last through Thanksgiving.
(The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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