A New York City judge has denied Navy veteran Daniel Penny’s request to drop the involuntary manslaughter charge against him.
Penny, 25, is charged in the death of Jordan Neely, a mentally ill homeless man he put in a chokehold on a New York City train last May. According to Penny and others, Neely had threatened passengers on the train.
Penny was twenty-four at the time and had a military background and moved to subdue him, holding him on the ground until he was unconscious.
Neely was pronounced dead at the scene and the medical examiner later ruled the death a homicide, saying Neely’s neck injuries proved the chokehold was the cause.
The incident sparked a national debate. Penny’s supporters praised his courage and said he should not be punished for trying to protect other passengers on the train, while others condemned him as a ruthless killer who targeted a defenseless, mentally ill black man.
Penny’s attorneys asked the judge in October to dismiss the case, questioning the medical examiner’s findings and pointing to the fact that Neely had synthetic drugs in his system that could have contributed to his death.
Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Maxwell Wiley today denied their request, ruling that he was satisfied with the medical examiner’s findings.
Navy veteran Jordan Neely will go to court with his lawyers on January 17. Their request to dismiss the case was denied
Penny put Neely in a chokehold on the train for six minutes while other men helped restrain him. He says Neely had been so threatening to other passengers that they feared for their lives
The judge has not yet set a date for the trial, but said it is unlikely to start before the fall.
An attorney for Jordan Neely’s father said today after the hearing that he was relieved by the judge’s decision.
“Today was a victory, a big victory. I think it’s important to note that a grand jury has said that Daniel Penny should be indicted for the murder of Jordan Neely.
“His lawyers tried to brush that aside by saying what the grand jury said didn’t matter, but the judge didn’t and we’ll be back here in March.
“Penny will be charged and our expectation is that Daniel Penny will be found guilty of Jordan’s murder,” said attorney Donte Mills of the Mills and Edwards law firm.
Regarding the drugs found in Neely’s system, he said it was an “excuse” picked on by Penny’s lawyers.
“Daniel Penny didn’t know what was in Jordan’s system when he decided to strangle him when he didn’t fight back or touch him in the first place.
‘He killed someone when he didn’t have to. There’s no way to justify that.’
Penny claims he was only trying to protect other train passengers from Neely, who was threatening them
Penny and his lawyers, flanked by security guards, leave court on Wednesday
Police officers perform CPR on Jordan Neely on a train on May 1, 2023
In their motion to dismiss the case, Penny’s lawyers quoted a witness on the train who described Neely’s threats as “absolutely traumatizing” and beyond anything he had experienced in six years on the subway.
Penny’s lawyers called Neely “insanely threatening.”
In the years before his death, Neely’s mental health had deteriorated, while his aggression seemed to increase; the NYPD had a warrant out for his arrest for hitting an elderly woman on the subway, and he was also accused of pushing a woman onto the train tracks.
Witnesses said at the time that Neely shouted that he was going to kill someone and that he didn’t care about going to jail.
In June, Penny told his version of events in a series of videos released by his lawyers.
‘I wasn’t trying to strangle him to death. “The man staggered along, he appeared to be on drugs, the doors closed, he tore off his jacket and threw it at the people sitting to my left,” he added.
He said he was taking out his headphones while listening to music when he heard Neely screaming in what he considered a “terrifying situation.”
“The three main threats he repeated over and over were: I’m going to kill you, I’m willing to go to prison for life and I’m willing to die,” Penny said.
At one point, Penny felt like he could no longer sit around and do nothing, echoing an interview he gave earlier in the week in which he quoted a school speech by author Elie Wiesel.
“There is a common misconception that Marines are not afraid. We are actually taught that courage is one of our core values, and courage is not the absence of fear, but the way you deal with fear,” he said.
‘I was scared for myself, but I looked around, there were women and children, he was shouting in their faces and saying these threats. I just couldn’t sit still.’
He argued that reports that he “held down” Neely for 15 minutes are “not true.”
‘The whole interaction lasted less than five minutes. Some people say I tried to strangle him, which isn’t true either. I tried to control him.”
He claimed the hold he used to restrain Neely was “based on the force (Neely’s) exerted.”
Neely in 2009 before his mental health deteriorated. His family says the crime was a racist attack and similar to the death of George Floyd
The incident sparked a national debate over whether Penny was a ruthless killer or a Good Samaritan trying to protect others on the train.