‘You’re going to kill him,’ onlookers warned Daniel Penny in clips shown at NYC manslaughter trial

MANHATTAN (CN) — “He’s dying, you’ve got to let him go,” one startled straphanger could be heard shouting on video as Daniel Penny held an erratic Jordan Neely in a fatal chokehold on a New York City subway car last spring.

The never-before-seen footage of the altercation was played to a Manhattan courtroom on Monday, as Penny stands trial for manslaughter. The woman behind the camera, 19-year-old high school senior Ivette Rosario, testified that she was taking the train back home to the Bronx when Neely boarded the Manhattan train, threw his jacket to the ground and started yelling.

“He stated how he was homeless, he didn’t have any money and he didn’t care about going back to jail,” a soft-spoken Rosario told the court.

Rosario said that she was “really, really nervous” and recalled Neely shouting “someone is going to die today” before Penny came up from behind Neely and quickly dragged him to the ground with a choke. She exited the train car, as did most passengers, when the doors opened at the Broadway-Lafayette subway station.

After seeking help, Rosario shot a minute-long video from just outside of the open train doors, showing Neely on the ground as Penny’s arms were wrapped around his neck.

Prosecutors rolled the footage, where Rosario, through hands visibly shaky on camera, managed to capture a glimpse of Penny and Neely rolling around on the floor of the Manhattan F train. That’s when the alarmed onlooker was faintly heard urging Penny to let Neely go.

“He’s dying, you’ve got to let him go,” the woman yelled.

But Rosario, who identified Penny only as “the white man,” said that Penny held on.

“Did the white man’s arm ever leave Mr. Neely’s neck?” prosecutor Jillian Shartrand asked.

“No,” Rosario said.

Neely was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital later that day. The city’s medical examiner ruled his cause of death was compression of the neck.

A Brooklyn man aboard the same train also cautioned Penny that his choke could prove to be fatal, according to testimony Monday. Larry Goodson, a 61-year-old ex-convict-turned-local politics worker, told the court that he’d “never seen a chokehold” like the one Penny had Neely in on May 1, 2023.

Goodson testified that his fiancée, like Penny, is a Marine Corps veteran with some experience in self-defense training. He said he called her when Penny first started restraining Neely. Based on what she told him, Goodson said he became concerned when he saw what appeared to be fresh feces in Neely’s blue sweatpants.

He urged Penny to loosen his grip.

“I said, if he’s defecating and urinating on himself, you’re gonna have to let him go because you’re going to kill him,” Goodson testified. “That didn’t stop Mr. Penny from holding him.”

Claiming that Penny appeared to be in a “trance,” Goodson said that Penny ignored numerous calls to let go of Neely from onlookers — including from one of the men that physically helped Penny subdue Neely.

Goodson was heard on another video played to the court, warning Penny and the other intervenors that Neely’s life could be waning in Penny’s arms.

“Once he’s defecated himself, that’s it,” Goodson was heard saying in the clip.

That footage was captured by Mexican-born journalist Juan Alberto Vazquez, another passenger on the train that day, who testified Monday with the assistance of a Spanish translator.

As Vazquez’s roughly five-minute video rolled, Neely’s father, who was seated directly in front of the courtroom monitor, audibly sighed and put his head in his hands. At one point, seemingly overcome with emotion, he got up and walked out of the room.

Rosario, Goodson and Vazquez all testified that Neely — while acting erratically — never directed his threats towards a particular passenger, touched anybody on the train nor appeared armed.

“There were a bunch of witnesses today that we all heard in the courtroom basically saying that they all told him to let him go or he’s going to die,” Neely’s uncle, Christopher Neely, told reporters outside of the courthouse Monday evening. “It kind of felt like he was in ‘the zone’ to murder my nephew.”

The polarizing case has ignited nationwide debate, thanks in part to the statuses of the two men involved. Penny, a white 26-year-old Marine veteran, was attending architecture and engineering classes in Brooklyn the day of the incident. Neely, who was a 30-year-old Black man, was experiencing homelessness and suffering from drug addiction when he died.

State prosecutors claim that Penny, while perhaps well-intentioned, went overboard in his bid to defend other passengers from Neely on the train.

“Under the law, deadly physical force such as a chokehold is permitted only when it is absolutely necessary and only for as long as it is absolutely necessary,” prosecutor Dafna Yoran said during opening arguments last week. “And here, the defendant went way too far.”

Penny’s attorneys, Steven Raiser and Thomas Kenniff, have argued that Penny’s use of force was more than justified, and suggested that several other factors could have contributed to Neely’s death.

Trial is expected to run to mid-December. Penny faces charges of second-degree manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide.

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