NEW YORK – Jurors have ruled against Daniel Penny, a 26-year-old Marine veteran accused of recklessly strangling Jordan Neely, a 30-year-old homeless man who stormed into a Manhattan subway car while shouting death threats. Deliberations in the manslaughter trial have begun. .
Penny arrived at the Manhattan courthouse on Tuesday morning for the final day of the prosecution's closing arguments as protesters chanted “Guilty!” through a megaphone.
The video showed Penny, flanked by his lawyers, adjusting his suit jacket and staring straight ahead, oblivious to the protesters and reporters outside the courthouse.
Inside, Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Dafna Yoran finished her closing argument just before noon, and the judge read jury instructions after a break.
Train hero Alec Skarlatos in Daniel Penny's Trials: “This Could Happen to You Too.”
Defendant Daniel Penny appears in Manhattan Supreme Court on Tuesday, December 3, 2024 in New York, New York. Closing arguments are scheduled to conclude today in the trial for second-degree manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide in the 2023 death of Jordan Neely in New York. Subway train in the city. (Rashid Umar Abbasi, Fox News Digital)
Penny could face up to 15 years in prison if convicted of the top-level charge of manslaughter. He is also charged with criminally negligent homicide.
Göran regained his composure and said to the demonstrators outside:
“The defense will have you believe that New York City's chief medical examiner is complicit in the fraud because there are fewer protesters outside,” she said. “I can go on and on about how absurd and insulting this is.”
The defense disputed this, telling the judge that they never alleged there was a collective conspiracy.
Prosecutor Daniel Penny dangles the race card again over defense objection despite no hate crime charges
Prosecutor Dafna Göran leaves the trial of Daniel Penny at the Manhattan Supreme Criminal Court building on Monday, December 2, 2024 in New York City. (Julia Bonavita/Fox News Digital)
At the time of the incident in May 2023, Neely was high on a drug called K2. Witnesses described the drug as a type of synthetic marijuana with effects similar to cocaine. He suffers from severe paranoid schizophrenia, has a long criminal history, and currently has a warrant out for his arrest.
He boarded the train, threw his jacket on the ground, and began making death threats, warning that he was not afraid of dying, going back to prison, or spending the rest of his life in prison.
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. They let him go. Eleven days later, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office announced charges and Penny turned himself in.
Daniel Penny appears for closing argument in subway chokehold trial
Jordan Neely is pictured outside the Regal Cinemas on 8th Avenue and 42nd Street in New York's Times Square in 2009 before going to see the Michael Jackson movie “This Is It.” (Andrew Sabrich/New York Daily News/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
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The City Medical Examiner's Office ruled that his death was due to asphyxiation, and that it was caused by strangulation. Defense expert Dr. Satish Chandru, a Texas forensic pathologist, said the cause of death was Neely's drug use, a genetic disorder known as sickle cell trait, physical exertion from fighting Penny, and severe mental illness. He argued that it was a combination.
Despite the crowd of angry protesters outside, Penney's defense fund has grown to more than $3.2 million and donations were still coming in as of Tuesday morning.
