Daniel Penny was found not guilty of criminally negligent homicide Monday in the chokehold killing of Jordan Neely on a Manhattan F train — bringing closure in the polarizing case that provoked heated debates about vigilantism, mental illness and subway safety.
The verdict came after Justice Maxwell Wiley on Friday dismissed the top charge of manslaughter at prosecutors’ request after jurors said they couldn’t unanimously agree on it. That allowed the panel to consider the lesser charge, carrying a maximum of four years in prison, as opposed to 15.
The Manhattan Supreme Court jury of seven women and five men got the case on Tuesday and made several requests during deliberations. They asked to review testimony from the city medical examiner who performed Neely’s autopsy, review footage of the encounter and its aftermath, and rehear various legal definitions.
The prosecution portrayed Penny as someone who may have initially acted with good intent when Neely got on the F train he was riding, acting menacingly toward those onboard. But they argued he crossed the line into criminality by holding onto Neely for far too long until he’d choked the life out of him.
Penny’s defense painted him as a good Samaritan being punished for trying to help his fellow New Yorkers in a frightening moment. They sought to convince jurors that the chokehold didn’t kill Neely but rather that his poor mental and physical health caused his death.
The case garnered national attention after footage of the chokehold incident went viral. In the early days of the presidential primary campaign season, Penny became a right-wing cause célèbre, pulling in millions of dollars toward his legal defense and words of support from GOP candidates like Vivek Ramaswamy and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
The nearly two-week delay between Neely’s death and Penny’s arrest saw civil rights protesters take to the city’s streets and subway tracks to protest the unaccounted-for killing of a poor and unarmed Black man in public. Rev. Al Sharpton delivered the eulogy at Neely’s funeral, telling mourners, “A boy on a train is screaming for help, and somebody comes up from behind and claims self-defense.”
Penny, 26, of Suffolk County, L.I., served for four years in the Marines and was studying architecture and working as a barback in Brooklyn at the time of the incident.
Neely, 30, who was homeless and experiencing untreated mental illness and drug addiction, grew up in New York and New Jersey. His mother was brutally murdered when he was 14, which his family has said derailed him. When he was stable, he found joy in dancing to Michael Jackson’s music for New Yorkers.
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The lives of the two men, both standing at 6 feet and 1 inch tall, collided at around 2:25 p.m. on the afternoon of Monday, May 1, 2023.
Penny boarded the train in Brooklyn and was going to the gym near the Flatiron building. Neely got on at the Second Ave. station, threw down his jacket, and began screaming shortly after the doors closed.
Manhattan DA
Police bodycam footage shows Daniel Penny looking on as officers try to resuscitate Jordan Neely. (Manhattan DA)
Eight passengers who testified at the trial said Neely said something to the effect of being ready to die and go back to jail, alarming them. Three said he used the words “kill” or “die,” in reference to himself or others.
A young mother who was on the train with her son did not recall Neely descending on them and saying, “I will kill,” as the defense stated at the start of the trial. Nobody testified that he put his hands on anyone or directed his threats at someone specific.
Penny quickly intervened, wrapping his arm around Neely’s neck and taking him down to the floor from behind, according to his defense and witness testimony. Within around 30 seconds, the train reached the next stop, Broadway-Lafayette, where the two men remained in a struggle on the floor, and passengers fled to the platform.
Prosecutors argued Penny’s actions became criminal at that point when he continued to subdue Neely in a chokehold for almost six minutes until Neely passed out, never to regain consciousness.
Two men aided Penny – Eric Gonzalez, 39, a room manager at a casino, who had been waiting on the platform when the train pulled into the station, and a man from Germany, who was on the train and refused to cooperate with either side or return to the U.S. to testify.
In a nearly five-minute video shot by independent journalist Juan Alberto Vasquez, which catapulted the incident into the national spotlight, Penny is seen with his arm gripped around Neely’s neck and his legs wrapped around his body on the stalled train.
Neely raises his left arm, and Gonzalez holds it down. Neely then raises his right arm and taps the leg of the German tourist, appearing to motion for help. The tourist then holds down Neely’s right arm. Gonzalez begins holding down both of Neely’s arms, the tourist now holding his shoulder, and Neely begins to squirm with greater effort as Penny tightens his grip around his neck.
In his testimony, Penny’s former martial arts trainer in the Marines, Joseph Caballer, said he had appeared to apply the chokehold technique he’d been taught incorrectly.
The situation intensifies, and the men roll over. Neely starts kicking his legs to break free. About three minutes into the video, Neely stops moving.
Witness Larry Goodson, 61, is then heard telling the men they should let go. Gonzalez insists Penny is “not squeezing no more.”
“You gotta let him go. My wife is ex-military. You going to kill him now,” Goodson says in the video, warning that if Neely defecated himself, “that’s it.”
Juan Alberto Vazquez
Within a few seconds, Penny and Gonzalez let up. Neely’s body is limp.
Police and medics soon arrived, failed to revive Neely, and brought him to Lenox Hill Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. On police-worn camera footage, Penny is seen telling officers at the scene he “just put him out.” Later, he willingly sat for questioning with detectives at the Fifth Precinct stationhouse.
“I was on my phone like listening to music. I wasn’t paying attention. He was just a crackhead; you know what I mean?” Penny told the cops about Neely getting on the train. “I felt the need that to, you know, step in because there’s women, children on the, on the train. I’m sure you’ll, there’s ladies there that, that’ll vouch for me.”
When he testified on Nov. 12, Gonzalez said he told Penny during the altercation that he could let go of Neely’s neck but that Penny did not. Gonzalez also admitted that he initially lied to authorities – claiming he’d been on the train the whole time and that Neely assaulted him and was breathing when he left the scene – out of fear he’d face charges.
The jury was asked to draw starkly different conclusions from the evidence.
Penny’s lawyers challenged the New York City medical examiner’s determination that Neely died as a result of the chokehold, proposing his mental illness and drug issues could have been the root. They focused much of their defense on arguing that his actions were justified.
“Jordan was on a collision course with himself. The consequences of Danny failing to act may very well have been the trial of Jordan Neely for hurting or killing someone on that train,” Steven Raiser said in his summation.
“This case is about a broken system. A broken system that does not help our mentally ill or our unhoused. In fact, it is that broken system that led us, that is interwoven into the very fabric of this case.”
The prosecution, in turn, said passengers’ fear of Neely was valid but that Penny did not need to use deadly physical force to address it – or subdue the unarmed Neely once everyone was off the train.
“[The] law is very proscribed. It is very narrow, very precise to make sure that people only use deadly physical force against each other when it is absolutely necessary, and for as long as it is absolutely necessary,” Assistant District Attorney Dafna Yoran said Monday.
“You obviously cannot kill someone because they are crazy and ranting and looking menacing. No matter what it is that they are saying.”
This story will be updated.
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