A witness admitted that he lied to the prosecution in the case of Daniel Penny, who is on trial for putting Jordan Neely in a chokehold in a New York City subway that allegedly led to his death.
Eric Gonzales, 39, was not charged in exchange for testifying in the trial, Fox News reported. But Gonzales admitted he lied to District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office when he was first interviewed.
In his initial interview, Gonzales told police and prosecutors that he had been on the subway train with Neely and Penny and that Neely had attempted to hit him. He said this is why Penny put Neely in the chokehold, the Gothamist reported. Gonzales also said at the time that he had helped Penny hold Neely down, and when the two men let go, Gonzales asked Neely if he was okay, and Neely told him, “Yeah.”
But on Tuesday, Gonzales admitted that he had made that story up. Assistant District Attorney Dafna Yoran asked Gonzales why he had lied.
“I was trying to justify my actions for me having my hands on him,” Gonzales responded.
Gonzales wasn’t in the subway car when Neely was making his alleged threats against other passengers. On Tuesday, he admitted that he had arrived after Penny already had Neely pinned to the ground.
“Everybody was frantic and saying, call the cops, call the cops,’” Gonzales said, according to WFIN. “I see those two individuals on the floor, so I assumed one was trying to restrain the other until the cops came.”
Gonzales later testified that he told Penny he could let go of Neely but wasn’t demanding that he do so.
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“I said I was gonna grab his hands so you can let go, giving him a different option to restrain him until police came,” Gonzales testified. “If I held his arms down he could let go of his neck. I didn’t think anything of it at the moment, I was just giving him an alternative.”
Gonzales and Penny continued to hold down Neely, and told jurors that at one point he told Penny to loosen his grip on Neely, but later told him to tighten it.
Video of the incident shows Gonzales telling Neely, “We’re not gonna let you go until the cops arrive.”
Multiple witnesses have testified that they were afraid of Neely, who entered the train car and allegedly began ranting that someone was going to die that day and that he didn’t care if he went back to jail. These witnesses have all said they feared for their lives, with some even thanking Penny for stepping in, The Daily Wire reported.
Penny faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted of manslaughter or up to 4 years if he’s convicted on the lesser charge of criminally negligent homicide.