NEW YORK – Jurors have started deliberating in the manslaughter trial of Daniel Penny, a 26-year-old Marine veteran accused of recklessly choking out Jordan Neely, a 30-year-old homeless man who entered a Manhattan subway car yelling death threats.
Penny showed up at the Manhattan courthouse on Tuesday morning for the final day of prosecutors’ closing arguments while demonstrators outside chanted “Guilty!” through a megaphone.
Penny, with his defense attorneys, adjusted his suit and faced forward without acknowledging the protesters or reporters outside the courthouse, as seen in a video.
Inside, Assistant Manhattan District Attorney Dafna Yoran completed her closing arguments before noon, and the judge read the jury instructions following a break.
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Daniel Penny arrives at Manhattan Supreme Court in New York, NY on Tuesday, December 3, 2024. Closing arguments are expected to finish today in his second-degree manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide trial for in the 2023 death of Jordan Neely on a New York City subway train. (Rashid Umar Abbasi for Fox News Digital)
Penny could face up to 15 years in jail if found guilty of manslaughter. He is also charged with criminally negligent homicide.
As Yoran concluded, she directly addressed the protesters outside.
“The defense wants you to believe that because of a few protesters outside, the chief medical examiner of New York was involved in fraud,” she stated. “I could continue on about how absurd and offensive this all is.”
The defense objected, informing the judge they never insinuated a mass conspiracy.
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Prosecutor Dafna Yoran departs Daniel Penny’s trial at the Manhattan Supreme Criminal Court building in New York City on Monday, December 2, 2024. (Julia Bonavita/Fox News Digital)
At the time of the May 2023 incident, Neely was under the influence of K2, a drug described by witnesses as synthetic marijuana with effects similar to cocaine. He had a severe case of paranoid schizophrenia, an extensive criminal record, and an active arrest warrant.
He entered the train, threw his jacket on the floor, and started making death threats, voicing that he was not afraid to die, return to prison, or spend life behind bars.
Penny restrained him in a headlock from behind, wrestled him to the ground, and with the help of another passenger, held him down. He cooperated with the police at the scene voluntarily. They released him. Eleven days later, the Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s Office announced his indictment, and Penny surrendered.
DANIEL PENNY RETURNS TO COURT FOR CLOSING ARGUMENTS IN SUBWAY CHOKEHOLD TRIAL
Jordan Neely is pictured before going to see the Michael Jackson movie, “This is It,” outside the Regal Cinemas on 8th Avenue and 42nd Street in Times Square, New York, in 2009. (Andrew Savulich/New York Daily News/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
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The City Medical Examiner’s Office determined his death as a homicide by asphyxiation, attributing it to the chokehold. A defense expert, Dr. Satish Chundru, a forensic pathologist from Texas, suggested that Neely’s death was due to a combination of drug use, sickle cell trait, physical exertion in the struggle with Penny, and his severe mental illness.
Despite the angry protesters outside, donations to Penny’s defense fund have surpassed $3.2 million, with additional contributions coming in as recently as Tuesday morning.
