New York City Mayor Eric Adams has come to the defense of a Marine Corps veteran charged in the death of Jordan Neely, a homeless man with a long criminal history. Neely screamed death threats on the subway train before being subdued and suffocated to death.
Daniel Penny, 26, could face up to 15 years in prison if convicted of manslaughter in the May 2023 death. He is also charged with criminally negligent homicide.
Jurors began deliberating Tuesday after the trial.
Neely, 30, who had a long rap sheet, a history of mental illness, and an active arrest warrant at the time of his death, boarded the train, threw his jacket on the ground and began making death threats. I'm scared of dying, I'm scared of going back to prison, I'm scared of spending the rest of my life in prison.
Daniel Penny appears for closing argument in subway chokehold trial
New York City Mayor Eric Adams spoke to reporters after a news conference in New York. Adams represented Marine Corps veteran Daniel Penny, who was charged with killing Jordan Neely on a subway train. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)
Penny grabbed him from behind in a headlock and wrestled him to the ground, where he was subdued with the help of another passenger. He remained at the scene and voluntarily consulted police. Neely eventually died.
“We're on the subway right now, and we're talking about someone hurting someone, killing someone,” Adams said on “The Rob Astorino Show” on Nov. 30. I'm listening to it,” he said. “You have someone [Penny] Who on the subway responded and did what the city should have done? ”
“Passengers were afraid,” the mayor added.
Penny's attorney, Stephen Reiser, told jurors in closing arguments that Neely, a former Michael Jackson impersonator, stopped struggling and tried to stand up, but he tightened his grip to keep him down. Penny said she loosened her grip many times.
Jordan Neely (left) and Moses Harper imitate Michael Jackson in front of the Regal Cinema in Times Square, where the Michael Jackson movie “This is IT” is being shown on Tuesday, October 27, 2009. Neely was killed on Monday, May 1, 2023. He was reportedly strangled by a fellow passenger on the New York City subway. (Andrew Savulich/NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images)
“There was no government. There was no police. Danny was there,” Riser said. “And when he needed help, no one was there. Does the government have the nerve to blame Danny just because the police weren't there? Danny held out when the police weren't there Are you blaming me?”
Manhattan prosecutor Dafna Yolan countered that Penny “did not recognize that Jordan Neely was a human being” and “considered him someone to be eliminated.”
Adams also criticized the city's mental health system.
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Daniel Penny and Jordan Neely.
“And look at the complete failure of our mental health system, from the days when we closed psychiatric wards and just handed people out onto the streets without providing a safety net to take in people who needed help.” A complete failure.”
The city medical examiner's office ruled that Neely's death was due to asphyxiation, a result of strangulation.
Neely had a history of assaults on subway passengers and other criminal activity. In 2021, he socked a 67-year-old woman coming out of the Bowery station. Lower Manhattan's East Village.
Between January 2020 and August 2021, he was charged three times with public indecency for exposing himself to an unknown woman by pulling down his pants, misdemeanor assault for punching a woman in the face, and criminal contempt for violating a restraining order. I was arrested. All three charges were dismissed as part of a Feb. 9 plea agreement.
While discussing the case, Adams also criticized the media's use of Neely's photo.
Defendant Daniel Penny appears in Manhattan Supreme Court on Tuesday, December 3, 2024 in New York, New York. Closing arguments in the second-degree manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide trial in the 2023 death of Jordan Neely in New York City are scheduled to conclude today. subway train. (Rashid Umar Abbasi, Fox News Digital)
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“It looked and gave the impression that it was an innocent young child who was brutally murdered. When you look at the pictures that were used, you see that we are dealing with an innocent young child. He tried to instill in people's minds that being a young child, you know, a kid, a Michael Jackson imitator, who, you know, was brutally assaulted. ”
Fox News Digital's Michael Ruiz and Rebecca Rosenberg contributed to this report.
