Subway workers who witnessed the May 2023 choking incident that ended in Jordan Neely’s death shed light on the circumstances leading up to the chaotic melee as Daniel Penny’s manslaughter trial concluded its first week of testimony Friday.
The jury heard how Neely caused panic among passengers when he boarded the Uptown F train car at Second Ave., dropped his jacket and began screaming.
“If I remember correctly, he said, ‘I don’t care. I will kill the mother. Oh, I’m ready to die. “Something like that,” said Alethea Gittings, a 50-year-old city resident who rides the train every day, describing Nellie’s behavior.
“I was afraid—less.”
The startup’s founder, Dan Couvreur, 29, said he also felt Neely’s anger was out of the ordinary compared to what he witnessed during his years on the subway, leaving him “terrified.”
“What really stood out was the tone,” Couvreur said.
“I took the subway to and from work, going out and stuff. This was just another kind of tone of desperation that he had in his voice – anger and aggression and that tone really stood out.
Lori Citro, director of research, was taking her 5-year-old son to a therapy appointment when Nellie boarded the train.
“He was screaming in people’s faces: ‘I don’t have water. I don’t have food. I don’t have a home. I want to hurt people. I want to go to Rikers. I want to go to jail.'” Citro testified that he became increasingly aggressive.
“It was about a foot long, a [foot’s] Distance from them, even in their faces. He was rushing towards people in different directions. “It was very erratic and unpredictable.”
Andrew Savulich; Barry Williams for the New York Daily News
Jordan Neely and Daniel Penny. (Andrew Savulich; Barry Williams for the New York Daily News)
In his opening statement last week, Binnie’s attorney, Thomas Kenniff, told jurors they would hear his client jumped into action when Neely turned his sights toward a group of women and said, “I’m going to kill,” as a mother hid her child. Behind his cart.
Citro’s testimony supported part of that story, but not the alleged threat.
“I actually took the stroller that I had and put it in front of my son to kind of create a barrier, you know, because I didn’t know what was going to happen,” she testified.
Prosecutor Gillian Chartrand asked: “Did Mr Neely lunge at you and say: ‘I’m going to kill you?'”
“No, he didn’t,” Citro testified.
The mother-of-two said she felt “so relieved” when Penny lowered Nellie from behind.
Gittings, Couvreur, and Citro all testified that they never saw Neely carry a weapon or direct his anger at anyone in particular. Jurors said he was not armed.
Court evidence
Police body camera video shows paramedics (right) working on Jordan Neely as police prepare a crime scene at a subway station. (court evidence)
Penny, 26, of Suffolk County, LI, has pleaded not guilty to second-degree manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide. If the jury finds him guilty of the first charge, he could face up to 15 years in state prison.
The former US Marine, who served in the Army for four years, was in college studying architecture and working as a barber in Brooklyn at the time of the accident. His lawyers said his actions were reasonable, saying the case was about “a young man who did for others what we all want someone to do for us.”
In the years before his death, Neely, a native of Manhattan, New Jersey, struggled with homelessness, untreated mental illness and drug addiction, and racked up a significant arrest record. He performed Michael Jackson’s songs on the streets and in the subway when he was healthy.
Prosecutors acknowledged that Neely’s actions on the train aroused reasonable fear and that Penny’s initial intent to protect passengers while the train traveled between stations for approximately 30 seconds was appropriate.
They say he crossed the threshold of criminality by continuing to restrain Neely in a chokehold that would prove fatal for 5 minutes and 53 seconds after the subway arrived at the Broadway-Lafayette station and passengers escaped from the train car.
Jurors have yet to hear testimony from the Medical Examiner’s Office, which ruled Neely died by homicide by neck compression. Benny’s legal team is expected to challenge this decision by bringing up his health history and past drug use.
The anonymous jury is also expected soon to hear from a man who helped Benny on the train. The man asked Benny to loosen his grip around Neely’s neck while assuring Benny he had control of Neely’s arms, but Benny would not give up, prosecutors said.
Originally published: November 8, 2024 at 5:29 PM ET
