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A Navy veteran accused of fatally suffocating a homeless man on a train will face a jury this week in an effort to fight charges that could put him in prison for 19 years.
And when Daniel Penny’s powerful legal team mounts his defense, the eyes of the nation will be watching: were his actions a selfless act of heroism or a cruel display of violence that left a relatively harmless man dead?
The 24-year-old attacked Michael Jackson impersonator Jordan Neely, 30, as the homeless man ranted wildly in the train car in New York City on May 1, 2023.
Witnesses testified that Neely was behaving erratically, yelling and threatening people. Penny held a writhing Neely in a chokehold for six minutes until he lost consciousness.
The officers who first arrived at the scene performed CPR, but only after several minutes had passed and they had given him his first injection of Narcan, court heard during a pretrial hearing earlier this month.
Neely was taken by ambulance to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Penny held Neely in a chokehold on the floor of the subway car while others helped on May 1, 2023.
Navy veteran Daniel Penny, accused of killing a menacing homeless man when he strangled him for six minutes on a train, appeared in a New York court in early October for a pretrial hearing.
Penny pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder and criminally negligent homicide, and her legal team tried to have the charges dismissed in January.
A jury trial begins Oct. 21 and Penny’s defense will argue that he intervened to protect himself and other passengers from Neely’s “incredibly threatening” actions amid a series of subway assaults and other crimes on the transit system. meter for the last two years.
Neely, who was homeless, was a former Michael Jackson impersonator and had been battling mental illness in the years before his death.
The case itself has divided the public. Some agree that Penny acted heroically for the safety of herself and her fellow travelers, while others say it was a blatantly excessive show of force toward a homeless, mentally ill black man.
Her followers rallied around Penny and supported a fundraiser in her name.
Key images missing from the evidence
A tourist couple who were on the train and witnessed the incident are reportedly unwilling to turn over footage that Penny’s lawyers believe would be “incredibly favorable” to the former Marine.
In September, the judge revealed that the couple “refused to testify before the Grand Jury, having returned to their home somewhere in Europe” and also “have so far refused to share the video they took.”
“They refused to share it with the district attorney or anyone else, and to this day they refuse to testify again,” Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Maxwell Wiley said.
Daniel Penny, 25, faces 19 years in prison for fatally strangling 30-year-old Jordan Neely. Neely, who was homeless, was a former Michael Jackson impersonator and had been battling mental illness in the years before his death.
Neely had an extensive history of crimes on the subway, including brutal assaults on other passengers.
Past illegal conduct on the subway
Neely had an extensive history of crimes committed on the New York City subway, including brutal assaults on other passengers.
In 2021, he attacked an elderly woman as she left the Bowery station in the East Village. He suffered a broken nose, a fractured orbital bone and “bruising, swelling and substantial pain in the back of his head” in the Nov. 12 attack, according to a criminal complaint.
He admitted to felony assault on Feb. 9 in exchange for a 15-month alternative to incarceration program, according to the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office.
He was supposed to stay in a treatment center and stay sober.
Between January 2020 and August 2021, he was arrested for public lewdness after pulling down his pants and exposing himself to a woman, misdemeanor battery for hitting a woman in the face, and criminal contempt for violating a restraining order.
All three cases were dismissed as part of a settlement.
In June 2019, Neely assaulted Filemón Castillo Baltazar, 68, on the platform of the West 4th St. station in Greenwich Village, court records show.
A month earlier, Neely punched a man in the face and broke his nose on the Broadway-Lafayette platform, the same subway station where he died.
Neely was a well-known Michael Jackson impersonator in Times Square (pictured in 2009).
Narcan over CPR
During a pretrial hearing on Oct. 3, one of the officers who first arrived on the scene revealed that CPR was not performed on Neely right away, despite indications that he was still alive.
Instead, he was given a dose of Narcan, the medication used to reverse opioid overdoses.
Prosecutors have been at pains to argue that Neely’s past behavior and substance problems are not relevant to the case, but the admission gave the defense ammunition to argue that drug use influenced the way he was treated by officials in their moments of death.
divided nation
The case shocked the United States and has divided the public.
Some agree that Penny acted heroically in that moment, while others say it was a blatantly excessive display of force toward a homeless, mentally ill black man.
Supporters have rallied behind Penny and supported a fundraiser in his name.
The day he returned to court in early October, new donations began to arrive.
One donor said Penny “would have been considered a good Samaritan in the past.”
The campaign has raised $3.098 million for Penny’s legal fees with thousands of donations ranging from $5 to $20,000.
One of the most generous donors was former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, who donated $10,000 to the cause last year.
Penny, a former infantry squad leader, said he did not intend to kill Neely but felt he needed to intervene to protect his fellow travelers.
State charges Penny with excessive force
While prosecutors have previously accepted that Neely’s behavior made some passengers afraid, they argue that Penny held him for much longer than necessary.
Assistant District Attorney Joshua Steinglass wrote in an earlier court filing that at least one witness described Neely’s ramblings as “like another typical day in New York.”
He argued that the F train they were riding arrived at the Broadway-Lafayette station and the door opened less than 30 seconds after the chokehold began.
“Passengers who were afraid of being trapped on the train were now able to get off the train,” Steinglass said.
“The defendant continued to hold Mr. Neely by the neck.”
Steinglass said second-degree murder only requires prosecutors to prove Penny acted recklessly, not intentionally.
New York police officers attempt to revive Jordan Neely as he lies on the floor of an F train on May 1.
Links between the district attorney and Penny’s defense
Penny’s defense attorney has a personal history with Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.
Thomas Kenniff was the Republican candidate campaigning for district attorney against Bragg in 2021, following the retirement of Cyrus Vance Jr.
Kenniff was always a long shot given that Democrats significantly outnumbered Republicans in Manhattan.
He attempted to argue that Bragg was too soft on crime for the position and was concerned that he would implement “lenient” policies that could ultimately worsen the crime rate.
