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By Jenna Sundel
News Reporter
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Testimony kicked off Monday as witnesses took the stand in the trial of Daniel Penny on Monday.
Penny, a 26-year-old former Marine, is charged with second-degree manslaughter and negligent homicide. He is accused of fatally choking 30-year-old Jordan Neely on a New York City subway in 2023. Neely, a well-known Michael Jackson impersonator, boarded the subway and reportedly began threatening people. Penny allegedly approached him from behind and placed him in a chokehold.
Neely was later pronounced dead at a hospital. His death was ruled a homicide by compression of the neck.
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Ivette Rosario, who witnessed the incident on the subway, took the stand on Monday. She said Neely's outburst made her nervous. She said she had seen outbursts on the subway before, "but not like that."
"Because of the tone, I got pretty frightened, and I got scared of what was said," Rosario said.
She said she looked down and hoped the train would get to a station before the situation escalated. When she heard someone fall down, she looked up and saw Neely on the floor. She said Penny had his arm around Neely's neck.
She exited the train after it stopped but continued to watch from the platform. She also took a video of the chokehold that was shown in court.
In the video, an unidentified bystander said Neely was dying and told Penny to "let him go."
Jury selection for the trial concluded on Wednesday. Prosecutors and defense delivered opening statements on Friday.
Prosecutors argued that Penny "went way too far" when he held Neely in a chokehold for six minutes.
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"Jordan Neely took his last breaths on the dirty floor of an uptown F train – at the time he died he was 30 years old, homeless, on synthetic drugs, and suffering from mental illness," Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Dafna Yoran said in her opening statement.
The defense argued that Penny was trying to protect other riders from someone who was potentially dangerous.
"This is a case about a young man who did for others what we would want someone to do for us," defense attorney Thomas Kenniff said in his opening statement. "Words like 'I'm ready to die. I'm ready to serve a life sentence,' when these threats spoken in the confined [space] in a moving subway car, you either bury your head and pray or you stand up and protect thy neighbor. That's what Danny Penny did."
Prosecutors called five witnesses to testify on Friday, including three NYPD officers. Jurors were also shown police body camera footage from the incident.
In the video, a police officer asked Penny what happened.
"I put him out," Penny said.
Officers in the video are seen trying to revive Neely.
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Outside of the courtroom, protesters held signs and called Penny a "subway strangler." The chants could be heard from inside the courtroom.
New York Supreme Court Justice Maxwell Wiley said he would tell jurors to ignore "noise outside the courthouse."
The trial is expected to last between four and six weeks, according to Wiley.
If convicted, Penny is facing up to 15 years in prison for the manslaughter charge and up to four years for the negligent homicide charge.
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