A key witness admitted to ‘lying’ to cops after Daniel Penny placed a homeless man in a chokehold on the subway.
Penny, a Marine veteran, is facing 15 years in prison for the choking death of troubled former Michael Jackson impersonator, Jordan Neely, 30, on an F train in Manhattan in May 2023.
On Tuesday, Eric Gonzalez, 39, who helped Penny restrain Neely that day, admitted he didn’t tell the truth when he was initially interviewed by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office following the man’s death.
During his testimony, Gonzalez, who was on his way to a construction job at the time, told the court he falsely claimed that he got to the scene earlier than he actually did, and that the former Marine decided to act after Neely hit him.
In reality, Gonzalez said Penny already had Neely in a chokehold when he got on the train.
The Bronx man said he fibbed about what happened that day because he feared he would get ‘pinned’ for the murder and wanted to ‘justify my actions.’
Now, the key witness has recanted what he originally told police and entered a non-prosecution agreement with the DA’s office.
On Tuesday, Eric Gonzalez, 39, who helped Penny restrain Neely that day, admitted he didn’t tell the truth when he was initially interviewed by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office
Gonzalez told the court he falsely claimed that he got to the scene earlier than he actually did, and that the former Marine decided to act after Neely hit him
Early Tuesday, Gonzalez said it looked like Neely was attempting to ‘escape’ from Penny’s hold.
‘Everyone was frantic, saying, “Call the cops! Call the cops!”… I figured one was trying to restrain the other until the cops came,’ Gonzalez said, referring to Penny and Neely.
‘I jumped in to try to help,’ he said, adding that he told Penny, ‘ “I am going to grab his hands so you can let go”.’
‘There was another time when I said, “You can let go, I’m holding onto him”,’ he said to the jury.
The 39-year-old said Neely tapped a person nearby because ‘he wanted to be released.’
Following the fatal incident, Gonzalez said he has lived in fear not just for himself, but for his family as well.
‘There’s all these protests going on. I’m scared for myself and for my family,’ he said, adding he was ‘scared’ when he found out he was a suspect in Neely’s death.
On Tuesday, another witness, Derrick Clay, of Queens, said he called 911 after about five to six minutes of watching the veteran hold Neely by his neck.
Daniel Penny a Marine veteran, is facing 15 years in prison for the choking death of troubled former Michael Jackson impersonator, Jordan Neely, 30, on an F train in Manhattan in May 2023
Neely was a Michael Jackson impersonator whose mental health deteriorated in recent years, according to his family
Clay recalled Neely looking ‘like he was asleep’, adding that he thought so ‘because he wasn’t moving.’
Penny, then 24, is accused of killing Neely by putting him in what prosecutors say was a fatal chokehold.
Other passengers expressed earlier in the trial that they were terrified of Neely before Penny stepped in as he told people he was prepared to go ‘back to Rikers’ and ‘someone will die today.’
A 19-year-old high school senior, Ivette Rosario, revealed she buried her head in her friend’s chest and ‘prayed’ the doors would open when Neely began ranting on the train.
When the train finally reached Broadway Lafayette she was one of a handful of passengers to call 911.
Audio of the call was played for the jury. The young girl, who was on her way home from school at the time, told the dispatch operator that ‘there was a guy saying he was going to harm people on the train.’
Speaking of Penny, she said: ‘This guy stepped in and is holding him down.’
In court, as that audio was played, she described Penny’s actions as ‘stepping up’ for those around him.
In the 911 call, she described the offender’s appearance as ‘black.’
‘The one making the harm is black,’ she said. ‘They’re pinning him down.’
Rosario told the court that Neely’s outburst on the train made her so nervous she thought she would ‘pass out.’
Defense lawyer Thomas Kenniff noted that her head was buried most of the altercation, meaning she may have missed key physical moments.
A second witness who was riding on the train, 59-year-old Mexican journalist Juan Vasquez, told the court that Neely did begin fighting back after he initially stopped moving.
‘Almost for a moment, they didn’t move much, and then the struggle began,’ he said via a Spanish interpreter.
‘Neely tried really hard to break free, desperately moving his legs to try to get loose.’
Penny’s defense said he never intended to kill the man and that it’s not definitive that he is to blame for his death.
Neely was still alive on the train when police arrived but was pronounced dead in the hospital afterwards.
The incident sparked uproar in America with Black Lives Matter describing it as ‘the racist killing of a mentally ill black man by an overzealous white military faithful.’
Others say Penny is a hero, a modern-day batman who stepped in when Neely made aggressive threats on the subway, including to a toddler boy whose mother shielded him with a stroller.
NYPD officers arrived on the train at Fulton Station at 2.33pm.
Two police officers confirmed that Neely still had a pulse when they arrived.
‘I got a pulse,’ one said. A second police officer confirmed that he too felt a pulse.
While on the stand, Gonzalez said Neely (pictured) tapped a person nearby because ‘he wanted to be released’ during the incident
The incident sparked uproar in America with Black Lives Matter describing it as ‘the racist killing of a mentally ill black man by an overzealous white military faithful’
Neely was unconscious, lying on the subway car floor.
When asked how Neely ended up there, Penny replied: ‘I put him out.’
Despite initially detecting a pulse, they issued Narcan – the drug used to reverse opioid overdoses – to Neely – and started CPR at 2.38pm.
Paramedics from Northwell Health arrived on the train at 2.48pm – 15 minutes after the police.
At 3.13pm – almost 45 minutes after police first arrived – Neely was still on the train, by then surrounded by paramedics.
From the time police received the dispatch call, it took seven minutes for first responders to arrive.
It was then another 10 minutes before emergency services arrived with a defibrillator and more resources.
Penny’s lawyer said his client was a college student and on his way to the gym that afternoon, and that he was ‘desperately waiting for police to show up and help him the way he had helped other passengers on this train’ that fateful day. (Pictured: Penny escorted in handcuffs on May 12, 2023)
He was not pronounced dead until he arrived at Lenox Health Hospital in Greenwich Village later that afternoon.
Kenniff said his client was a college student and on his way to the gym that afternoon.
‘This struggle did last five to six minutes. But Danny was not, and could not, have been squeezing his neck. We know that because if he was, Neely would have passed out in the first minute,’ Kenniff said.
‘Danny was desperately waiting for the police to show up and help him the way he had helped other passengers on this train.’
The trial, which started on November 1, is expected to last up to six weeks, and will call upon medical experts, first responders, and other passengers who were on the train that day.
