Witnesses in NYC subway chokehold trial are sharply divided over Daniel Penny's actions

A violent encounter on an uptown F train that divided New Yorkers is now dividing the Manhattan courtroom where a man stands trial on manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide charges.

Daniel Penny, 26, put Jordan Neely, 30, in a chokehold on the subway in May 2023, after Neely yelled that he was hungry, thirsty and ready to die or go to jail, according to witnesses. Penny continued to hold Neely for about six minutes, and Neely was pronounced dead soon after.

A video that captured several minutes of the chokehold and its aftermath went viral, leading some viewers to praise Penny and others to call for his criminal prosecution. The men’s races and backgrounds added another politically charged layer to the public debate — Penny is a white former Marine, while Neely was a Black homeless man who had schizophrenia and used drugs.

As witnesses who were at the scene testified at Penny’s trial Thursday, those same diverging perspectives were on display.

One witness who was on the train described Neely as “satanic” and said she was relieved when Penny restrained him.

“If he had gotten up, who would have known what he would have done,” Caedryn Schrunk told the jury.

Schrunk said she was on her way to a coffee shop near the Broadway-Lafayette station when she smelled a strong scent and saw Neely walking toward her, “absolutely screaming, gesturing with his hands.”

She said she rides the subway every day and sometimes moves to another part of the train or gets off at the next stop when she feels uncomfortable. But in this case, she said, the doors were closed, it was hot and no one was moving.

“I’ve never seen a human in that state,” she said.

Schrunk said she recalled seeing a woman sitting near her, shielding a child in a stroller. She said she was worried that Neely might have a gun or a knife.

“I truly believed that I was going to die in that moment,” she testified.

When Penny’s defense attorney, Thomas Kenniff, asked Schrunk if she remembered Neely threatening to kill, she said “yes.”

And when Kenniff asked her if it appeared that Penny — who he referred to as Danny — was trying to harm Neely, she said “no.”

But a man who stumbled into the chaos at the Broadway-Lafayette station described Penny, not Neely as the villain.

Johnny Grima repeatedly referred to Neely’s death as a “murder” and said Penny told him to stop when he tried to pour some water on Neely’s head.

“That’s weird. That’s wrong,” Grima said of Penny. “You’re not a police officer.”

Grima, who was previously unhoused and is now an activist for homeless New Yorkers, said he was on his way back to his supportive housing apartment in the Bronx when he noticed the F train he was riding had stopped at Broadway-Lafayette.

He said he saw a crowd on the platform and went into a car that seemed to be the source of the commotion. That’s where he said he found Penny on the ground, holding Neely in a chokehold while another man helped to hold him down.

Grima said he told Penny and the other man to put Neely on his side, so he wouldn’t choke to death.

“I’m concerned about the man, because he’s not moving,” Grima said. “He’s, like, limp and stiff and his eyes are staring off.”

Grima had never seen a dead person before, he said, and he thought Neely was in a “vegetative state.” He said he wanted to help, but he felt “pretty intimidated,” because Penny is “a pretty big guy.”

“Your client, Daniel Penny, came between me and Neely,” he told a defense attorney during cross examination.

Grima said he left the train, got on an uptown D train and went home. But he said he wished he’d done more to help Neely.

“I felt really guilty,” Grima said. “I felt like I’d f—ed up.”

Defense asks for mistrial

Onlookers crowded into the wooden benches in the gallery Thursday, and their emotions occasionally cut through the typically sterile courtroom environment. As a witness testified about Neely’s condition when Penny let go of him, a woman sitting in the back began to sob and was escorted into the hallway.

Neely’s father, Andre Zachery, leaned forward with his head down while jurors watched a bystander video of the incident.

The defense’s cross examinations also grew tense at times.

A teenager who was on the train began to cry and dab her eyes with a tissue as Kenniff pointed out discrepancies between her testimony on the stand and statements she made to the grand jury. When Grima was cross-examined, he leaned back, tilted his head to the side and asked for more water during one particularly heated back and forth.

After jurors were dismissed in the late afternoon, Kenniff urged Justice Maxwell Wiley to declare a mistrial. He was particularly concerned about the testimony of a police officer who drove Penny to a nearby NYPD precinct for an interview.

At the precinct, Officer Osvaldo Ortiz said, Penny spoke with his partner about how they had both served in the military. Ortiz also said Penny had mentioned that he had considered becoming a police officer, prompting a loud objection from Kenniff and the statement being stricken from the record.

Kenniff told the judge that the officer’s statement, as well as other comments by prosecutors and another witness, would likely feed into a narrative that Penny is a “white vigilante,” which he said has been with the case “since day one.”

“There is no longer a way that my client can get anything resembling a fair trial,” Kenniff said.

Wiley said he understood.

“But I deny the motion,” he said.

This story has been updated with new information.