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 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. 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 boyfriend’s convic.
