Witnesses testify, new video seen of Jordan Neely’s fatal subway choke during Daniel Penny’s trial

NEW YORK CITY (WABC) — Jurors on Monday saw footage of Daniel Penny grabbing a man by the neck on a New York subway train while another passenger begged the Navy veteran to let him go.

Two videos shot by bystanders — one a high school student, the other a freelance journalist — gave an anonymous jury their first first-hand view of the choking at the center of the wrongful-death trial surrounding the 2023 death of Jordan Neely.

Prosecutors say the student’s video has never been made public before. Jurors also saw what prosecutors said was a fuller version of the video by Mexican freelance journalist Juan Alberto Vázquez, part of which he posted on social media and was widely viewed.

A family member of Neely held his head in his hands and then left the courtroom as the video of Vázquez played on the big screens.

The first subway passenger to testify was a 19-year-old Bronx woman who was walking home from high school during the May 2023 incident.

Ivette Rosario, who was 17 at the time, testified about the moments before she started recording the video.

Neely entered the train behind her, muttering that she wasn’t homeless and that she was hungry, taking off her sweater and throwing it on the floor. She said she was so nervous that she rested her head on her friend’s chest, but she heard someone’s noise and looked up to see Penny holding Neely.

Rosario said she got off the train, her hands shaking from what she had seen, and called 911. She testified she never saw Penny let go or loosen the choke.

She shot a video of Penny on the floor — cradling Neely’s head in the crook of her left arm, her right hand over Neely’s head — and an unseen bystander saying Neely was dying and urging, “Let her go!”

Rosario said she did not see Neely specifically address or approach anyone.

But according to the defense, Neely lunged at a woman with a stroller and said she was “going to kill,” and Penny felt she had to take action.

Prosecutors do not allege Penny intended to kill, nor do they charge him for initially deciding to try to stop Neely’s threatening behavior. But Penny is said to have gone overboard choking the man for about six minutes, even after the passengers were able to exit the train after two of them stayed and helped hold Neely down and after it had stopped moving for nearly a minute.

An attorney for Neely’s family says whatever he said didn’t justify what Penny did.

Vázquez testified through a Spanish-language interpreter that Neely “tried really hard to free herself,” first trying to pull Penny’s arms from around her neck — until another passenger grabbed them down — and then moving his legs.

Then, “in an instant, he stopped moving,” Vázquez told jurors.

He confessed to shortening the version of the video he posted on social media, cutting out about a minute at the beginning where Penny and Neely weren’t moving much. Like Rosario, he made his video after the train pulled into the station.

A third eyewitness, a 61-year-old man, testified that he begged Penny, “if you don’t let him go and that’s the state, we’re going to lose him.”

He said a man seen in the video grabbing Neely by the arms told Penny several times, “I’m going to hold his hands so you can release the block,” but Penny “didn’t answer me or did not respond to the person who came to assist. “

The never-before-seen video was as well presented on Friday which showed the moments after Neely’s controversial death, as lawyers debate whether or not Penny’s actions were far-fetched or brave.

Penny faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted of involuntary manslaughter.

The trial is expected to last until Thanksgiving.

(The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

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