Daniel Penny (C) exits the NYPD's 5th Precinct in handcuffs (2023). A city medical examiner says Penny’s chokehold was what killed Black street performer Jordan Neely. However, the defense tried to argue Neely’s death was attributed to synthetic marijuana in his system instead. File Photo by John Angelillo/UPI |
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Dec. 2 (UPI) -- Closing arguments were delivered Monday in the trial of accused New York City subway killer Daniel Penny as his defense tried to paint Penny as a modern-day savior.
"No one had to die on May 1, 2023," Assistant District Attorney Dafna Yoran said Monday in her closing statement about last year's chokehold death of Jordan Neely, a Black homeless man, on a subway train. Before his death, Neely allegedly made verbal threats that scared a handful of passengers, ABC News reported.
The 12-person jury likely will not begin its deliberations until Tuesday. But the judge did ask jurors to consider extending deliberations into Wednesday.
Penny's lawyers wrapped up their case on Nov. 22 in a Manhattan court without calling the 26-year-old Marine veteran to the stand.
He pleaded not guilty in June to charges of manslaughter and negligent homicide. If convicted, Penny faces up to 15 years in prison. But there is no minimum sentence.
Penny, a native of Long Island, was greeted to shouts of "Guilty!" as he arrived to court Monday morning, according to New York Post. He's accused by the prosecution of "recklessly" killing Neely.
Neely, a street performer and Michael Jackson impersonator, was put in a deadly chokehold for roughly six minutes until he died on the floor of an F train car in Manhattan's Lower East Side. A bystander, meanwhile, recorded part of the incident in a video that went viral on social media.
Prosecutors contend that Penny, then a 25-year-old former Marine, had used excessive force as witnesses stated that Neely never brandished a weapon or attacked a passenger.
But the defense tried to downplay the incident and paint Penny as a hero of sorts. Passenger witnesses had expressed a mix between fear to unafraid during the deadly subway incident.
On Monday, defense attorney Steven Raiser claimed a "violent and desperate" Neely had entered the train "filled with rage and not afraid of any consequences," he told the jury, and that Penny had "acted to save those people."
Yoran did concede that Neely entered the train in an "extremely threatening manner" but had argued it was to a degree "so much less than deadly physical force would have" called for to protect the passengers from Neely.
She admitted Penny's initial intent was "laudable" but added that he held on too long.
A city medical examiner concluded that Penny's chokehold was what killed Neely. However, the defense tried to argue that Neely's death was attributed to synthetic marijuana found in his system and a genetic condition.
Raiser claimed Penny "was not applying a textbook Marine blood choke because his purpose was not to render Mr. Neely unconscious," he said.
But the prosecution stated that the defendant Penny "could have easily restrained Jordan Neely without choking him to death," said Yoran.
