NYC subway chokehold death trial begins: Daniel Penny faces manslaughter charges

NEW YORK ? On Friday opening statements began in the trial of Daniel Penny, a former Marine facing manslaughter charges in the death of a homeless man and beloved street performer on a New York City subway car last year.

Video of Jordan Neely's violent death gained national attention and sparked days of protest in the city after police questioned Penny and initially released him from custody.

Penny intervened to restrain Neely, who struggled with mental health problems and drug use. A medical examiner ruled his death was caused by "compression of the neck," court records show.

Over the next several weeks, the jury, who was seated Wednesday, will be tasked with deciding whether Penny, 26, acted recklessly when he held Neely, a former Michael Jackson tribute artist, in a minutes-long chokehold on the floor of a train car on May 1, 2023, resulting in his death. Penny was 24 years old at the time, prosecutors said.

Defense attorney Thomas Kenniff told jurors Friday morning Neely was acting "psychotic" and threatened to kill people in the subway car.

Kenniff also said evidence will later show Neely's death was also a result of cardiac arrest brought on by the stress of the event and blocked blood flow caused by sickle cell disease that was revealed in Neely's autopsy.

Prosecutor Dafna Yoran told jurors they should focus on the length of time Penny, who was trained in chokeholds, held Neely's neck ? including for several minutes after all passengers had left the subway car and for nearly a minute after Neely's body went limp.

"He used far too much force for far too long," Yoran told jurors.

NYPD officers testify

On Friday afternoon, jurors heard from a New York Police Department officer and a sergeant who responded to the scene in the subway station, finding Neely not breathing, with a faint pulse, and moments later, no pulse.

In testimony, Sgt. Carl Johnson confirmed that body camera footage showed responding officers did not give Neely possibly lifesaving mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and didn't start chest compressions until minutes after arriving at his limp body.

Neely did not have a weapon when he was on the train, police said. After patting down Neely while he was unconscious and searching the pockets of a black hoodie, the only object in the man's possession at the time of his death was an unwrapped muffin, police officer Teodoro Tejada told jurors.

"He was an apparent drug user and he was very dirty," Johnson said, explaining he did not instruct his officers to give Neely mouth-to-mouth out of fear they might contract AIDS or another disease.

Who was Jordan Neely? A 'young man in real crisis,' advocates say

Street performer Neely had experienced homelessness

Neely, who was 30 years old when he died, experienced homelessness off and on throughout his life, beginning in childhood when he and his mother lived in New Jersey. When Neely was 14, his mother was murdered by her boyfriend, her body stuffed in a black duffel bag and dumped off a highway in the Bronx.

"That's the kind of trauma that can cause anyone to unravel," Lennon Edwards, a lawyer for Neely's family, said last year in the days following the man's death.

Defendant hires high-profile lawyer

The case became more high-profile in recent weeks when Penny hired Jo-Ellan Dimitrius, a jury selection consultant who helped O.J. Simpson select members of the jury for his 1995 murder trial, in which he was acquitted. In the case against Penny, the judge ruled jury members will remain anonymous to the public, the New York Times reported.

During jury selection in October, potential jurors were asked whether they were regular commuters on the subway and what their experiences in the subway system have been like, The Associated Press reported.

"The subway is a very unusual place," said Bennett Gershman, a law professor at Pace University Law School in White Plains, New York, who is not involved in the case. "People are maybe even scared, they don't know who anybody is, they don't know what could happen."

Gershman told USA TODAY he predicts the defense team will have an easier time proving Penny did not act recklessly when he restrained Neely, pinning him to the floor of the subway car.

The trial is predicted to last five or more weeks, the court announced.

"I predict a hung jury or an acquittal," Gershman said.

After studying court documents, Brooklyn-based attorney Nicole Brenecki said the defense could argue that both Penny and Neely were victims of a social system in which people who desperately need mental health support are left to fend for themselves, often ending up in harm's way.

"I'm not saying what he did was right ? I don't know if what he did was right," Brenecki said. "But it's a very good argument because if the victim has been struggling so much and no resources were provided to him and he was out there in the street dealing with a nightmarish life, this is the failure of the system."

(This story has been updated to add new information.)

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Daniel Penny trial over NYC subway killing begins Friday