(Ken Silva, Headline USA) It was a clearcut case of self-defense—at least, at first.
In June 2019, Tracy Kanary was minding his own business at a Bay City, Michigan recovery house, where he had recently checked in to prove to his family that he was sober.
Kanary’s roommate, Gene Woods, was in a bad mood, apparently thinking that Kanary stole his medication. Woods decided to confront Kanary with his allegations.
When Kanary denied stealing Woods’s “Tums” medication, the argument turned more heated—and Woods decided to become violent. He suddenly rushed Kanary, swinging wildly.
EXCLUSIVE: A man was convicted of murder last year for killing his attacker.
Headline USA has obtained the footage of the incident, and is making it public here for the first time.
Supporters of the convicted man, Tracy Kanary, say the case is comparable to the Daniel Penny… pic.twitter.com/UpOYT7CrqY— Headline USA (@HeadlineUSA) March 12, 2025
Kanary defended himself by clinching his attacker and taking him down—receiving multiple blows to the back of the head in the process. Woods countered the takedown with a potentially lethal guillotine choke on Kanary.
Again, Kanary defended himself—peeling off Woods’s choke, working out from underneath him, taking his back, and applying a chokehold of his own. Woods tried bucking Kanary off—sending him crashing head-first into a wall—but he continued to apply the hold.
“Matt!” Kanary called to another recovery house resident. “Call 9-1-1!”
The other resident, Matt Navarre, displayed little sense of urgency, walking away to call law enforcement.
That’s when the incident turned deadly, and much more legally complicated.
As seconds passed, and then minutes, help had still not arrived. At certain points, Kanary said Woods began to struggle again, which is why he maintained his hold, he said.
By the time police arrived some six minutes after the fight began, Woods was motionless—later to be pronounced dead.
Kanary was tried twice, the first one ending in a hung jury in December 2022, and the second one ending in a second-degree murder conviction last April.
Kanary maintains to this day that he didn’t intend to kill Woods. When he took the stand in court, he was asked whether he knew Woods had stopped breathing. Kanary said he was breathing so hard himself that he could hardly tell.
“I was breathing so hard myself because I had just got up, just got choked, just got punched, choked, and it was a strenuous thing trying to get out of his chokehold, so I was breathing very hard myself,” Kanary testified.
“I was scared that he was going to get back up again and hurt, and just start swinging and punching me again. So I, you know, I started yelling for help right away.”
Nearly six years and two trials later, Kanary is serving a 22- to 36-year sentence.
His supporters say he never received a fair trial.
For starters, Kanary was initially just charged with manslaughter—but Bay County Prosecuting Attorney Nancy Borushko upgraded the charge to murder in response to political pressure, according to journalist Robert E. Martin.
During his trials, Kanary wasn’t allowed to have a medical doctor testify as an expert witness. According to his supporters, a medical doctor could have testified how the blows to the head he suffered impacted his ability to think clearly and make rational decisions. He was also denied the ability to have a psychologist, who could have explained that when individuals engage in “fight or flight behavior” when in a life-threatening situation.
And despite not having those legal defenses, it still took two trials to convict Kanary.
“The problem with the jury’s verdict and the judge’s reasoning, however, is that the Attacker was a known troublemaker, with a long criminal record including assaults, in and out of jail, with a cocktail of drugs in his system that likely contributed to his aggressive behavior at the time of the attack,” Martin wrote in an article last August.
“A Pharmacologist could’ve analyzed the medicines and toxins found in the attacker’s system, and the prescription pill bottles found at the scene, to determine the effects on behavior and aggression from drugs taken or recently stopping a drug, and how that combination of drugs could contribute to respiratory distress,” Martin wrote.
“But the jury never heard this information, because Tracy was denied professional witnesses, and the judge did not allow some of it. How did this go wrong? Tracy, who was being represented by a public defender at both trials, was told by both that he wasn’t allowed various professional witnesses due to budget approvals or acceptance by the Court,” Martin wrote.
Kanary’s supporters say the matter resembles the case of Daniel Penny—the man acquitted in December for fatally choking a mentally ill person who had been threatening people in a New York City subway. Except unlike Penny, Kanary was attacked first, his supporters argue.
One of the supporters provided Headline USA with footage of the incident. It’s being published here for the first time publicly.
This reporter showed the footage to martial arts experts, including MMA fighters Malachy Friedman and Hamza Mir.
From a technical fighting standpoint, Woods’s punching was “as bad as you can get.” But his grappling skills were potentially lethal, Friedman said. The guillotine choke Woods initially applied on Kanary could have killed him, according to Friedman, who runs Black Label Martial Arts in South Carolina.
As far as why the fight started in the first place, Friedman said both men made mistakes in not trying to deescalate the situation.
“I don’t like how [Kanary] was moving forward in the beginning, but [Woods] was swinging and [Kanary] was then backing up,” he said when reviewing the footage. “I’m sure emotions are super high.”
Friedman said he doesn’t believe Kanary’s actions rose to the level of murder. He said Kanary being punched probably spiked his adrenaline, clouding his judgement in the process.
“[Getting punched] it’s going to drive you up a wall. You’re going to be in panic mode. Your heart is going to be beating like it’s never been beating before,” he said.
Without knowing what was in Kanary’s head at the time, Friedman does say that he believes the incident was likely manslaughter.
“Maybe he didn’t mean to kill him, but I know how long it takes for brain damage: 60 seconds. This is by far a death sentence for [Kanary to hold the choke] that long. But that’s what happens when people are untrained,” he said.
“That’s the danger of choosing a choke … If you use jiu jitsu in a self-defense situation, you have to understand how long a [choke] should be on before you let up.”
Mir, a coach at Arizona Combat Sports, agreed the two should have avoided fighting for numerous reasons.
“Even if you are superior on the ground, the other guy can carry a knife and stab you … Second, if you take the guy down and he picked up something from the ground—like a stone—you are f**ked,” Mir explained.
“Third reason, as demonstrated in this video, the other guy can have superior ground skills than you.”
Kanary still has an outstanding appeal in his case.
Meanwhile, Woods’s family continues to grieve over his needless and tragic killing. Woods had an education in the culinary arts and worked at numerous businesses around Bay City, according to his obituary.
“It changes the very fabric of your being; it changes you at your very core,” Woods’ older sister, Krista Backstrom, wrote last year before Kanary’s sentencing. “It hits you at such a deep emotional level that not a day goes by you don’t think of that person and long to talk to them, see them, communicate with them in some way.”
Ken Silva is the editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/jd_cashless.
