Opening statements to begin at Daniel Penny trial for subway chokehold death of Jordan Neely

Opening statements were expected to statesman Friday astatine Daniel Penny’s manslaughter trial for the subway chokehold decease of Jordan Neely.

Penny, 25, of Suffolk County, L.I., has pleaded not blameworthy to second-degree manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide and faces up to 15 years successful authorities prison if convicted of the apical count. The erstwhile infantry squad person served for 4 years and was studying architecture astatine the clip of the incident.

When helium was well, Neely, 30, who grew up successful Manhattan and New Jersey, was recognizable to galore New Yorkers for dressing up arsenic Michael Jackson and performing his songs connected the streets and underground. His household has said helium was derailed by his mother’s horrific execution erstwhile helium was 14. In the years starring to his death, helium was battling untreated schizophrenia, cause addiction, and homelessness and racked up a important apprehension record.

The 2 men’s worlds collided connected an uptown F bid connected May 1, 2023, astatine astir 2:25 p.m.

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Jordan Neely is pictured earlier going to spot the Michael Jackson movie, “This is It,” extracurricular the Regal Cinemas successful Times Square, successful 2009. (Andrew Savulich/New York Daily News)

Penny boarded the subway astatine Jay St.-MetroTech and has said helium was going to the gym aft attending classes successful Brooklyn.

Most witnesses who testified earlier a expansive assemblage past year, according to tribunal documents, said Neely got connected astatine Second Ave., threw down his windbreaker jacket, and began yelling. Many said helium “expressed that helium was homeless, hungry, and thirsty,” and “indicated a willingness to spell to jailhouse oregon prison.”

Some said Neely “threatened to wounded radical connected the train,” portion “others report[ed] nary specified threats,” tribunal docs say.

One expansive assemblage witnesser said cipher had ever “put fearfulness into” her similar Neely; others said his outburst was not unsocial to them arsenic regular bid riders.

“Honestly, I wasn’t truly disquieted astir what was going on,” 1 witnesser testified. “I’m benignant of utilized to that, truthful I spot that each the time.”

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s bureau alleges Penny held Neely successful a chokehold that proved lethal for immoderate six minutes, astir of it aft the bid had reached the Broadway-Lafayette St. presumption and passengers had disembarked. During assemblage selection, prosecutors told prospective jurors that his archetypal volition to support passengers was “laudable,” but that helium yet went “way excessively far.”

Juan Alberto Vazquez

Video footage shows erstwhile U.S. Marine Daniel Penny putting Jordan Neely successful a chokehold portion aboard a New York City subway, arsenic it pulls into the Broadway-Lafayette St. presumption successful Manhattan connected Monday, May 1, 2023. (Juan Alberto Vazquez)

Nearly 4 minutes of the encounter’s second moments, captured by autarkic writer Juan Alberto Vasquez, showed Penny and Neely successful a soundless conflict connected the level of the bid stalled astatine the station.

Neely twists and writhes arsenic Penny clenches his cervix successful a chokehold and curls his legs astir his body, the footage shows. Another rider is seen restraining Neely’s arms by his sides.

After kicking his legs a fewer times, Neely grows anemic and yet stops moving. The different rider stops to analyse him, and Penny releases his grip aft a antheral who appeared to person been watching from the level shouts astatine them to fto up, warning, “You’re gonna termination him,” the video shows.

Penny, looking disoriented, is seen lasting astir with different passengers and concisely inspecting a lifeless Neely earlier authorities arrive. Neely was taken to Lenox Hill Hospital and pronounced dead.

Police-worn assemblage camera footage, which was played successful tribunal successful the leadup to the proceedings erstwhile the justice considered admitting it into evidence, shows cops searching Neely’s pockets astatine the country and uncovering a muffin. Penny’s defence squad unsuccessfully fought to halt the assemblage from proceeding that helium was not armed.

Daniel Penny arrives astatine Manhattan Criminal Court connected Oct. 22, 2024. (Luiz C. Ribeiro for New York Daily News)

The assemblage is expected to presumption compartment telephone videos captured by bystanders, the NYPD bodycam footage, and video recordings of Penny speaking to detectives instantly aft the incidental astatine the Fifth Precinct, erstwhile helium willingly sat for questioning.

Penny’s defence besides tried without occurrence to barroom jurors from seeing his statements to the constabulary up of the trial.

Penny told cops that erstwhile Neely got connected the train, helium “wasn’t truly paying attention,” and that “he was conscionable a crackhead,” the footage shows.

“He took his overgarment off. He’s like, ‘If I don’t get this, this, and this, I’m gonna, I could spell to jailhouse forever.’ He was talking gibberish, you know,” Penny said of Neely. “These guys are pushing radical successful beforehand of trains and stuff.”

In the 11 days that lapsed betwixt Neely’s decease and Penny’s arrest, Vasquez’s footage went viral and prompted calls for the erstwhile Marine’s prosecution and questions astir whether contention played a relation successful the constabulary letting a achromatic antheral locomotion escaped aft helium choked an unarmed Black antheral to decease successful public.

Penny rapidly became a right-wing origin célèbre, receiving enactment from the likes of Donald Trump and erstwhile GOP statesmanlike candidates Ron DeSantis and Vivek Ramaswamy. An online effort to rise wealth for his ineligible defence had raked successful implicit $2 cardinal wrong days of Penny’s arrest.

At assemblage enactment Wednesday, prosecutors accused the defence of getting escaped of jurors based connected their contention aft Penny’s lawyers utilized 8 of their 9 preemptory strikes to destruct 5 Black people, 2 Hispanic radical and 1 Asian person.

The jurors selected to perceive the lawsuit see six achromatic women, 3 achromatic men, a Black man, and a antheral of Asian descent. The panelists, whose identities Judge Maxwell Wiley ruled volition stay anonymous, scope successful property and travel from divers nonrecreational backgrounds.