A key witness admitted “lying” to police after Daniel Penny strangled a homeless man on the tube.
Penny, a Navy veteran, faces 15 years in prison for the asphyxiation 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 that he did not tell the truth when he was initially interviewed by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office after the man’s death.
During his testimony, Gonzalez, who was on his way to a construction job at the time, told the court that he falsely claimed he arrived at 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 strangled when he boarded the train.
The Bronx man said he lied about what happened that day because he feared he would be “pinned down” for the murder and wanted to “justify my actions.”
Now, the key witness has recanted what he originally told police and signed a non-prosecution agreement with the district attorney’s office.
On Tuesday, Eric Gonzalez, 39, who helped Penny restrain Neely that day, admitted that he did not tell the truth when he was initially interviewed by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office.
Gonzalez told the court that he falsely claimed he arrived at the scene earlier than he actually did and that the former Marine decided to act after Neely hit him.
Earlier Tuesday, Gonzalez said it appeared Neely was trying to “escape” Penny’s control.
“Everyone was frantic, saying, ‘Call the police! Call the police!”…I figured one was trying to hold the other down until the police arrived,” Gonzalez said, referring to Penny and Neely.
“I jumped in to try to help,” he said, adding that he told Penny, “I’m going to grab his hands so you can let him go.”
“There was another moment where I said, ‘You can let him go, I’ll keep him,'” he told the jury.
The 39-year-old man said Neely touched a nearby person because he “wanted to be freed.”
After the fatal incident, Gonzalez said he lived in fear not only for himself, but also for his family.
“There are all these protests happening. “I’m scared for myself and my family,” he said, adding that 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 five or six minutes of seeing the veteran hold Neely by the neck.
Daniel Penny, a Navy veteran, faces 15 years in prison for the asphyxiation 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 that Neely looked “like he was asleep,” adding that he thought so “because he wasn’t moving.”
Penny, then 24, is accused of killing Neely by applying what prosecutors say was a fatal chokehold.
Other passengers expressed earlier in the trial that they were terrified of Neely before Penny intervened and told people he was prepared to “go back to Rikers” and that “someone is going to die today.”
Ivette Rosario, a 19-year-old high school senior, revealed that she buried her head in her friend’s chest and “prayed” for the doors to open when Neely began ranting on the train.
When the train finally arrived at Broadway Lafayette, she was one of the few passengers to call 911.
The audio of the call was played for the jury. The young woman, who was returning home from school at the time, told the operator that “there was a guy who said he was going to hurt people on the train.”
Speaking about Penny, he said: “This guy stepped in and is holding him down.”
In court, as that audio played, she described Penny’s actions as “a step forward” for those around him.
In the 911 call, he described the offender’s appearance as “black.”
“The one who does the damage is the black man,” he said. “They are immobilizing him.”
Rosario told the court that Neely’s outburst on the train made her so nervous that she thought she would “pass out.”
Defense attorney Thomas Kenniff noted that his head was buried during most of the altercation, meaning he may have missed key physical moments.
A second witness who was traveling on the train, Mexican journalist Juan Vásquez, 59, told the court that Neely began to defend himself after he initially stopped moving.
“Almost for a moment, they didn’t move much and then the fighting started,” he said through a Spanish interpreter.
“Neely tried with all his might to free himself, desperately moving his legs to try to get free.”
Penny’s defense said he never intended to kill the man and it is not definitive that he is to blame for his death.
Neely was still alive on the train when police arrived, but was later pronounced dead at the hospital.
The incident caused an uproar in the United States, with Black Lives Matter describing it as “the racist murder of a mentally ill black man by an overzealous white military loyalist.”
Others say Penny is a hero, a modern-day Batman who intervened when Neely made aggressive threats on the subway, including to a little boy whose mother protected him with a stroller.
NYPD officers arrived by train at the Fulton station at 2:33 p.m.
Two police officers confirmed that Neely still had a pulse when they arrived.
“I have a pulse,” said one. A second police officer confirmed that he also felt a pulse.
While on the stand, Gonzalez said Neely (pictured) punched a nearby person because he “wanted to be freed” during the incident.
The incident caused an uproar in the United States, with Black Lives Matter describing it as “the racist murder of a mentally ill black man by an overzealous white military loyalist.”
Neely was unconscious, lying on the floor of the subway car.
When asked how Neely ended up there, Penny responded, “I kicked him out.”
Although they initially detected a pulse, they administered Narcan, the medication used to reverse opioid overdoses, to Neely, and began CPR at 2:38 p.m.
Northwell Health paramedics arrived on the train at 2:48 p.m., 15 minutes after police.
At 3:13 p.m., nearly 45 minutes after police arrived, Neely was still on the train, by then surrounded by paramedics.
From the moment the police received the call, it took seven minutes for first responders to arrive.
It was another 10 minutes until emergency services arrived with a defibrillator and more resources.
Penny’s attorney said his client was a college student heading to the gym that afternoon, and that he was “desperately hoping the police would show up and help him the same way they 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 that same afternoon.
Kenniff said his client was a college student and was headed to the gym that afternoon.
‘This fight lasted five to six minutes. But Danny wasn’t and couldn’t have been squeezing his neck. “We know this because if it 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 same way he had helped other passengers on this train.”
The trial, which began Nov. 1, is expected to last up to six weeks and will call on medical experts, first responders and other passengers who were on the train that day.