Subway chokehold trial: Passenger testifies Jordan Neely fought hard to free himself

A passerby who helped former Long Island Marine Daniel Penny subdue Jordan Neely in a chokehold on the F train last year testified the homeless man fought fiercely to free himself up to the moment he stopped moving.

Neely, 30, who suffered from mental health and drug addiction issues, burst into the car as it left the station, throwing his jacket on the ground and telling the standing-room-only crowd he was hungry and thirsty and he did not care if he went to prison for the rest of his life, multiple witnesses have testified.

Eric Gonzalez, 39, a father of two, came upon the scene at the uptown F train platform of the Broadway-Lafayette station, he told jurors Tuesday.

He said he looked up from his phone and saw Penny struggling with Neely on the floor of the train and heard other bystanders ask those around them to call the police.

"Everybody was frantic saying, ‘Call the cops, call the cops,'" he said "It seemed that one was holding the other until the police came. I jumped in and tried to help."

Prosecutors acknowledge that initially Penny acted to protect passengers, including some young mothers with children. They said the veteran, trained in hand-to-hand combat, took it too far, holding Neely by the neck for more than five minutes, ultimately killing him.

Gonzalez said he, too, acted to help. He told Penny he would hold Neely’s arms so that the former Marine could release his grip on the homeless man.

Penny, formerly of West Islip, now stands trial in Manhattan for second-degree manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide for the death of Neely, a Michael Jackson impersonator who used to perform for tips in the subway system.

The initial conflict unfolded in less than 30 seconds — the length of time it takes the train to travel between the Second Avenue and Broadway-Lafayette stations.

A video played Tuesday for the jury shows Gonzalez and Penny struggling to subdue Neely.

Neely can be seen trying to speak with another bystander to get them to let him up.

None of the witnesses called by the prosecution saw Neely direct his threats toward any specific subway rider and they all testified he did not touch anyone before Penny came up behind him and put him in a chokehold.

Gonzalez told the jury that he put all his weight on the homeless man’s arms during the struggle because Neely had broken his grip once.

Another bystander, who was on a video phone conference with his wife during the struggle, told the men that Neely may die if they didn’t release him.

Annoyed the man had chosen to gawk at the scene rather than help, Gonzalez testified he tried to quiet the man.

"To try to shut him up, I said that he wasn’t holding him tight enough," he told the jury.

After a few minutes of struggle, Gonzalez said Neely went limp and he let go of his arms. Moments later, he said Penny released him.

In the days after Neely died, a co-worker showed Gonzalez a photo of him at the scene and told him that police were looking to interview him in connection with the homeless man’s death.

"I went into hiding," he said. Later, he agreed to meet with prosecutors in the presence of his lawyer, but lied about his involvement, he said, because he was afraid of being charged with Neely’s death.

"I fabricated a story to the ADA. I lied to the ADA," Gonzalez said on the stand of meeting with the assistant district attorney. "I told the ADA that as things were transpiring I was there when everything went down."

He told the district attorney’s office that he was riding on the train with Neely and Penny and that the homeless man swung at him before Penny put him in a chokehold.

"I told him that Neely had struck me first and Penny had come to my defense," he said.

Subway surveillance footage showed, however, Gonzalez entering the subway at the Broadway-Lafayette station after Neely and Penny began their struggle.

Prosecutors played a video taken from a bystander in slow motion that appears to show Penny tightening his grip on Neely as the three men wrestle on the subway car floor.

 Prosecutors said Neely’s last voluntary movement came at 2:28 p.m., more than five minutes after the F train left the Second Avenue station.

Police did not begin life support until 10 minutes later, prosecutors said. Emergency responders, who arrived nearly 10 minutes after that testified Tuesday that Neely did not have a heartbeat and did not respond to six doses of adrenaline administered to revive him.

Doctors at Lennox Health Greenwich Village declared him dead at 3:39 p.m., roughly an hour and 10 minutes after he boarded the F train. 

The trial continues on Thursday.