A witness in the trial of Daniel Penny, a former U.S. Marine who is facing charges of manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide related to the death of Jordan Neely, took the stand on Nov. 12 to describe how he helped restrain Neely at the scene, and how he had initially lied to investigators out of fear that he might be held liable for the man’s death.
Eric Gonzalez, a 39-year-old groom manager at a casino, who spent his early years in the Dominican Republic before moving to New York, said he rides the subway every day.
His testimony overlapped significantly with, yet also departed in critical ways from, that of witnesses who were present when Neely, a mentally ill homeless man, provoked the confrontation that led to his demise on a Manhattan-bound F train on May 1, 2023.
After several days of testimony in which witness after witness described feeling terrified at Neely’s conduct, and suggested Penny had helped protect bystanders from a crazed man—Gonzalez expressed serious and ongoing fears he has about the potential consequences of having been involved in the incident.
In contrast to several witnesses on earlier days of the trial, who boarded the F train in Brooklyn or one of the first Manhattan stops on its uptown route, Gonzalez said that he entered the subway system that day at the Broadway-Lafayette station, one stop above Second Avenue, where witnesses are unanimous Neely boarded the train. […]
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