Subway chokehold trial: Straphangers told jurors Daniel Penny acted to protect them

Manhattan subway riders who witnessed Daniel Penny put Jordan Neely in a chokehold on the F train last year — a move prosecutors charge killed the homeless subway performer — lauded the Long Island Marine veteran’s intervention and testified Friday that they felt relieved after he stepped in.

It was the second day of testimony from straphangers, some with decades of experience riding the subway, who said that Neely, 30, a Michael Jackson impersonator with mental health problems, made them more afraid than they had ever been on the city transit system.

"I’ve taken the subway for 30 years and I’ve seen a lot, but this felt different to me," said Lori Sitro, who tried to hide her 5-year-old son behind a stroller when she said she heard Neely screaming and lunging at her fellow passengers.

The New York City medical examiner ruled that Neely died of asphyxiation from the May 1, 2023 chokehold, and a Manhattan grand jury indicted Penny, 26, on second-degree manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide charges.

Prosecutors called three subway riders to the witness stand Friday and each seemed to bolster the defense case that Penny acted to protect other people on the train.

"We got to see what this case is all about," defense attorney Thomas Kenniff said outside the courthouse after testimony broke for the day. "We got to see what the riders on that subway train that were trapped in that underground subway car with Jordan Neely were experiencing — their fear, their children’s fear — and we got to see what Daniel Penny did to protect them."

Sitro said Neely came within a foot of some passengers as he ranted about being hungry.

"He was shouting 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,’" Sitro, a Brooklyn advertising agency research director, said. "He was lunging at people in different directions. It was very erratic and unpredictable."

Prosecutor Jillian Shartrand pressed her for details on the threat and Sitro acknowledged that Neely never directed his rage at any one rider, never touched any of the passengers and never showed a knife.

The only thing police found in his pocket was an unwrapped muffin, according to testimony.

Nevertheless, Sitro said she feared for her safety and the safety of her son.

"I was scared for my son," she said. "It’s not like you can take a 5-year-old and run to the next train. Five-year-olds don’t move very quickly. I felt very relieved when Danny Penny took him and stopped him from moving around like he was."

Prosecutors agree that Penny’s actions were initially meant to assist his fellow commuters, but they contend he acted recklessly when he held onto Neely for more than six minutes, using a chokehold that is forbidden by the Marines.

Daniel Couvreur, a startup business founder who was heading to West 4th Street that day, told the jury that even on the ground, Neely seemed to continue to be a danger to passengers.

"The situation wasn’t under control, they were still very much in a tussle at that point," he said.

Another woman, Alethea Gittings, a retired medical billing worker who was riding the train from the Carroll Street stop in Brooklyn, said Neely was "very loud, very disturbing, very menacing."

She left the train after it pulled into the Broadway-Lafayette station to try to find a police officer for help. Gittings said she returned to the platform and agreed to speak to police on Penny’s behalf.

"I came back to thank Mr. Penny for what he had done based on the whole scenario," she said.

The case continues Tuesday.