By Jonathan Allen
NEW YORK (Reuters) - A prosecutor told jurors on Friday that the former U.S. Marine sergeant who fatally strangled Jordan Neely on a New York City subway car was indifferent to Neely's humanity, and needlessly continued his deadly chokehold for more than five minutes.
Daniel Penny, 26, has pleaded not guilty to charges of manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide and said he never intended to kill Neely. He has said that Neely, a 30-year-old homeless man with a history of mental illness, was threatening passengers before he intervened on an uptown train on May 1, 2023.
"His initial attempt was even laudable: to protect fellow New Yorkers from a perceived threat," Assistant District Attorney Dafna Yoran told jurors in an opening statement. "But deadly physical force is permitted only when it's absolutely necessary and only for as long as it's absolutely necessary, and here the defendant went way too far."
The killing gained widespread public attention, with some viewing Neely, who was Black, as a victim of a vigilante. Others, including some Republican politicians, feted Penny, who is white, as a hero.
Yoran described Neely as the sort of homeless person with mental illness that New Yorkers train themselves to ignore. Boarding the train car, Neely threw his coat to the floor, screaming that he was hungry, thirsty and wanted to go back to jail. Witnesses will testify to the jurors that it was scarier than the usual New York subway encounter, Yoran said.
"His voice was loud and his words were threatening," Yoran told jurors, although he was not armed and not physically threatening any particular individual. Within 30 seconds of Neely getting on the subway car, Penny came up behind him and used his left arm to squeeze Neely's neck.
"He went quite literally for the jugular," Yoran said. Moments later, the train pulled into a station, and almost everyone got off the car, while Penny continued to choke Neely on the floor of the subway car for another five minutes and 53 seconds, maintaining the chokehold even after Neely fell unconscious.
A lawyer for Penny, Thomas Kennis, told jurors that Penny was a college student and on his way to the gym that afternoon.
"He still has no way of anticipating what is about to happen as the subway doors are about to close and a seething, psychotic man storms on and announces his presence," Kennis said. Penny was prompted to act when he watched Neely move toward a woman with a young child, uttering the words: "I will kill," he said.
"What Danny does is leap into action," Kennis said. "Danny's conduct that day wasn't consistent with someone who devalued human life."
Kennis told jurors that the evidence will not prove Neely died by asphyxiation, and that his death may have been a result of drugs in his body and the "excitement" of the struggle. He said Penny at times loosened his grip around Neely's neck.
Jurors will see cellphone videos recorded from the platform. Yoran said that, as a Marine, Penny was trained in first aid and knew the chokehold he was using could be deadly.
"You will see Mr. Neely's life being snuffed out before your very eyes, but what you will also see in this video is how unnecessary this deadly chokehold was," Yoran said. She noted that two men stayed on the car to help Penny restrain Neely.
"With the police clearly on their way, with the train virtually empty, the defendant's chokehold on Jordan Neely was just beginning," Yoran said.