Lead Daniel Penny prosecutor secured light sentence for thug who killed 87-year-old in ATM robbery

Assistant Manhattan District Attorney Dafna Yoran, who urged jurors astatine Daniel Penny's subway chokehold proceedings to convict him of manslaughter connected Tuesday, erstwhile sought reduced punishment for a Manhattan mugger who killed an 87-year-old implicit $300 successful 2019 nether the conception of "restorative justice."

Matthew Lee, 57, snuck up connected the victim, a erstwhile Lehman College prof named Dr. Young Kun Kim, from down astatine a Citibank ATM connected Broadway connected May 13, 2018, video shows. The fatal blow, a punch to the caput from behind, appears to person occurred off-camera.

Kim was hospitalized and aboriginal died from his injuries. Police yet identified Lee arsenic the fishy and arrested him wrong a week.

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Prosecutor Dafna Yoran is shown astatine the Manhattan Supreme Criminal Court gathering successful New York City connected Dec. 2, 2024. (Julia Bonavita/Fox News Digital)

Kim survived the Japanese concern of Korea and the Korean War, the New York Post reported successful 2019. His lad forgave the slayer astatine sentencing successful a Manhattan courthouse.

Under a 2020 argumentation introduced by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's predecessor, Cyrus Vance Jr., Yoran "saw an accidental for a transformative outcome," according to Gothamist, a New York City quality site. It was the archetypal usage of the programme successful a homicide case.

"It is conscionable a continuance of the soft-on-crime policies that person permeated our large cities," said Louis Gelormino, a Staten Island defence lawyer who has said the lawsuit against Penny should ne'er person been filed.

Kim's lad and daughter-in-law, Jinsoo and Julia Kim, agreed to conscionable with Lee, his sister and a societal idiosyncratic for 90 minutes, according to modern reports. The mates could not instantly beryllium reached for remark Tuesday.

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Daniel Penny arrives astatine Manhattan Supreme Court successful New York City connected Dec. 3, 2024. (Rashid Umar Abbasi for Fox News Digital)

"I can’t take however overmuch I hurt, but I tin take however overmuch I hate, and I take to not hatred you anymore," Jinsoo Kim told Lee successful his victim's interaction statement, preserved online successful the Post report. "I forgive you, not conscionable for your involvement but for excavation arsenic well. There is nary healing wherever determination is hate."

After the meeting, Lee was charged with manslaughter alternatively of felony murder, reducing his imaginable condemnation from 25 years to beingness to 10 years.

Felony execution charges are usually filed erstwhile idiosyncratic dies arsenic the effect of different felony committed by the suspect. Manslaughter charges impact reckless behaviour that results successful death.

Lee is presently being held successful a medium-security authorities situation successful Otisville, New York, and is eligible for parole successful 2026.

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Jordan Neely is pictured successful 2009. (Andrew Savulich/New York Daily News/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)

Penny, 26, faces a maximum of 15 years successful situation if convicted of the apical complaint helium faces, manslaughter.

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Jurors began deliberations connected Tuesday.

"The defence present has blamed the system, the constabulary response, everyone is liable for Jordan Neely’s decease but the defendant," Yoran told the assemblage arsenic her closing arguments coiled down. "The lone happening you request to find present is that the grounds has proven beyond a tenable uncertainty that the suspect had killed Jordan Neely."