Daniel Penny subway trial: Jurors hear opening statements in Jordan Neely’s death

NEW YORK (WABC) — Prosecutors and defense lawyers agree on one thing about Marine Corps veteran Daniel Penney’s encounter with a distraught, angry and threatening man on the New York subway last year: Penney didn’t want to kill him.

But a prosecutor told jurors Friday that Penny “went too far” in trying to neutralize someone he saw as a threat rather than a person, while a defense attorney said Penny showed “courage” and put others’ interests ahead of his own. when he subjected Jordan Neely to a choke hold that ended with Neely limping to the floor.

Both sides made opening statements Friday at the manslaughter trial surrounding Neely’s death.

The case has stirred up controversies surrounding race, homelessness, perceptions of public safety and bystander responsibility. Jurors could hear some testimony from witnesses Friday after opening statements.

Penny pleaded not guilty to charges of second-degree manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide in Neely’s death.

Twelve Manhattanites were elected to serve on a the jury consists of seven women and five men.

According to the judge, the trial could last between four and six weeks.

The prosecutor’s office makes an opening statement

On May 1, 2023, Daniel Penney was callous to Jordan Neely, disregarded basic precautions and human decency and needlessly killed him in a subway car in a strangulation that lasted “far too long,” prosecutors said Friday in an opening statement. to the Court in the case of Penny’s manslaughter and manslaughter.

“Jordan Neely breathed his last on the dirty floor of the F train,” prosecutor Daphne Joran told the rapt jury. Penny, she says, believes that “Mr. Neely doesn’t deserve even the tiniest shred of humanity.” Neely was 30 years old, homeless and suffering from mental illness at the time of his death.

“Every day in our city we walk past people like Jordan Neely. As New Yorkers, we learn not to make eye contact, not to make eye contact, to pretend that people like Jordan Neely don’t exist,” said Goran. “On May 1, Neely demanded to be seen.”

According to Goran, Neely entered a crowded subway car at the 2nd Av stop and began threatening to hurt people, scaring many passengers. “His voice was loud and his words threatening.”

She pointed to Daniel Penney when she told jurors: “This man took it upon himself to destroy Jordan Neely. To neutralize him.”

Thirty seconds later, the train arrived at the next station, Broadway-Lafayette, and all the passengers left the car except for the two men who were helping Penny restrain Neely.

“There was no one left on the train to be protected by the defendant,” said Goran. “He continued to choke Jordan Neely even after Mr. Neely was passed out.”

Penny pleaded not guilty. His lawyers said Neely made “crazy threats”, but Goran said Penny’s actions were recklessly reckless as he continued to choke for 5 minutes and 53 seconds after the subway car was empty. “The hut that never changed,” Joran called it.

“The defendant did not intend to kill him. His initial intention was even laudable,” said Goran. “But under the law, deadly physical force such as strangulation is permitted only when and only for as long as absolutely necessary, and here the defendant went too far.”

The prosecutor told jurors they would see video of the strangulation. “You’re going to see Mr. Neely’s life being drained before your eyes,” Goran said, apparently upsetting one of the jurors, who grimaced and briefly closed his eyes.

The defense makes an opening statement

Daniel Penney stood up to “protect his fellow man” after Jordan Neely’s threats rang out through the closed confines of a subway car in what he said was a “senseless rage,” defense attorney Thomas Canniff said during his opening statement Friday .

“This is the case of a young man who did for others what we would like someone to do for us,” Canniff said. “That doesn’t make him a hero, but it doesn’t make him a murderer either.”

Penny was on the F train heading to 23rd Street to swim at the gym when “a seething, psychotic Jordan Neely bursts in and announces his presence,” the defense attorney said. with such force that even those who cannot see hear it.”

The defense said the situation on the train went from “concern to fear” as they tried to portray Neely as far scarier than the prosecutor described in his opening statement.

“Neely aimed for the female passenger bench,” Canniff said. “Danny sees a mother barricade her son behind a pram out of fear of Mr. Neely.”

Penny heard Neely say “I’m going to kill,” and the defense said he had no way to reduce or stop Neely from the harm he threatened.

“What Danny does is jump into action,” Canniff said. Taking “a little bit” of the martial arts training he received in the Marine Corps, Penny strangled Neely, not intending to kill him, but, the defense said, to hold him until police arrived.

“His behavior was consistent with someone who values ​​human life, and that’s why he tried so fiercely to protect it,” the lawyer said.

Kenniff insisted his client “didn’t want to use more force than was necessary” but Neely “resisted aggressively” while in Penny’s arms. He said Penny thought Neely, who was unarmed, might have a gun while he waited for police.

“The evidence will show that this struggle did go on for 5 to 6 minutes,” but Canniff said Penny “didn’t push.” Instead, the defense suggested that Neely’s death could have been caused by cardiac arrest, a genetic disorder or some other cause other than asphyxiation. The defense said Penny could not have realized or foreseen the risk of Neely’s death.

Protesters rally near the courthouse

There were sounds of protest in the 13th floor courtroom over the death of Jordan Neely. Protesters were heard calling Penny the “subway strangler.”

The judge said he would instruct the jury to ignore “the noise outside the courthouse.”

Penny walked confidently into the courtroom in a navy blue suit and sat down at the defense table.

Neely’s family members sit with the audience.

“I loved Jordan. And I want justice for Jordan Neely. I want it today. I want justice for everybody and I want justice for Jordan Neely,” his uncle Christopher Neely said before the trial began.

Before opening statements, Judge Maxwell Wiley granted a defense request to allow some eyewitness statements of the May 1, 2023 strangulation to police that were captured on body cameras.

One witness, Ms. Rosario, was caught on a body-worn camera 15 minutes after the incident aboard the F train. “I see most of that statement as an excited statement,” Wiley said. He refused to allow the part of her statement in which the officer asks if she thinks Neely is using drugs.

Mr Latimer was arrested a minute later and Wylie said his statement was “within the scope of the event” and could be accepted.

“This person shows emotion, excitement when he describes what happened. It’s a narrative,” Wiley said.

Most of the passengers who were on the train and witnessed the event are expected to testify at the court

(The Associated Press and ABC News contributed to this report)

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