A teen subway rider present during a deadly encounter between Marine veteran Daniel Penny and belligerent homeless man Jordan Neely testified on Monday that she was “scared” by the latter’s screaming before a chokehold rendered him silent.
Ivette Rosario, 19, was riding the F train subway car with her friend when Penny put Neely in a chokehold in May 2023.
Rosario is a high school senior from the Bronx who has lived in New York City for a decade after immigrating from the Dominican Republic. She was the sixth witness to take the stand in Penny’s trial, testifying on Monday that Neely barged onto the train and kept his hand in the door so it would not close right away, delaying the train’s departure.
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He said “he was homeless, didn’t have any money and didn’t care about going to jail” as he ripped off his sweater and shouted.
He did not speak to anyone specifically, she said, but he made her nervous, screaming in a high-pitched voice and physically appearing angry.
“I got scared by the tone that he was saying it,” she said. “I have seen situations, but not like that.
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Under cross-examination, she said she heard Neely warning that someone would die that day.
“I just wanted the doors to open, so I could get away,” she testified.
Then she heard a thud and saw Penny and Neely struggling on the subway floor.
She eventually called 911 and recorded some cellphone video of Penny holding Neely in a “headlock.”
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Next to take the stand was Juan Alberto Vazquez, a Spanish-language journalist who recorded part of the encounter on video and testified with the help of interpreters.
He testified that Neely sounded “violent and desperate” as he complained about being hungry and thirsty to passengers on the train. The homeless man was behaving erratically and shouting in a way that prompted him to ask someone to call 911, he said. He testified that he did not see a weapon but was afraid Neely might have one.
He testified that a second man in a black hat helped Penny hold Neely down as they waited for police.
Penny, who is a 25-year-old Marine Corps veteran and college student majoring in architecture, could face up to 19 years in prison if convicted.
Neely was a 30-year-old homeless man and former Michael Jackson impersonator with a history of mental illness and criminality, including a prior charge for assaulting a 67-year-old New York City woman in 2021.
The trial resumes Tuesday at 10 a.m. ET.
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