NEW YORK — Manhattan prosecutors once more accused Daniel Penny of failing to acknowledge the “humanity” of Jordan Neely throughout their closing arguments Monday, weeks after being accused of unfairly hinting at racial undertones in a case that doesn’t contain hate crime costs.
“He did not acknowledge that Jordan Neely was an individual,” Manhattan prosecutor Dafna Yoran informed the jury. “He noticed him as an individual that wanted to be eradicated.”
She claimed that Penny “was so reckless with Neely’s life as a result of he did not appear to acknowledge his humanity.” She replayed video of Penny’s police interrogation, the place he referred to Neely as a “crackhead” and informed detectives, “You recognize these guys, they’re pushing folks in entrance of trains and stuff.”
“We’ve all spoken dismissively about folks like Jordan Neely,” she stated. “Possibly we, too, have lumped all of them collectively like this, however the context may be very telling right here. When the defendant is speaking like this about Mr. Neely, he is aware of he very doubtless had killed him. Are you able to think about an affordable particular person talking like this a couple of human being that she or he had simply killed?”
DANIEL PENNY RETURNS TO COURT FOR CLOSING ARGUMENTS IN SUBWAY CHOKEHOLD TRIAL
Prosecutor Dafna Yoran departs Daniel Penny’s trial on the Manhattan Supreme Legal Courtroom constructing in New York Metropolis on Dec. 2, 2024. (Julia Bonavita/Fox Information Digital)
Penny was not informed about Neely’s dying when he voluntarily agreed to talk with NYPD detectives.
Yoran used comparable language earlier within the trial throughout her opening assertion, and her workforce additionally allowed witnesses to explain Penny as “the White man” and a “assassin,” prompting Penny’s protection legal professionals to object and ask the courtroom to declare a mistrial over the language.
Saying Penny did not see the humanity in Neely unfairly invoked race, in response to his protection, and mixed with the opposite language, it will make it unimaginable to get a good trial. The decide denied that earlier movement to declare a mistrial.
In the course of the protection’s closing arguments Monday, which got here earlier than Yoran’s remarks, Penny’s protection legal professional, Steven Raiser, argued that the 26-year-old structure pupil stepped in after town of New York failed passengers on the subway automotive when Neely, a 30-year-old homeless man excessive on medication and affected by schizophrenia, barged in and began threatening riders.
DANIEL PENNY DEFENSE CALLS FORENSIC PATHOLOGIST TO WITNESS STAND: ‘THE CHOKEHOLD DID NOT CAUSE THE DEATH’
Daniel Penny arrives on the Manhattan Legal Courthouse constructing in New York Metropolis on Nov. 25, 2024. (Rashid Umar Abbasi for Fox Information Digital)
“The federal government wasn’t there. The police weren’t there. Danny was,” Raiser informed the jury. “And when he wanted assist nobody was there. The federal government has the nerve guilty Danny as a result of police weren’t there? Blame Danny for holding on when police weren’t there?”
It took seven minutes for police to answer the 911 name and 20 minutes earlier than medics arrived, he stated. Neely was “on a collision course with himself,” and a “damaged system” failed everybody concerned, the lawyer stated.
Penny is on trial going through costs of manslaughter and criminally negligent murder.
Neely had a prolonged arrest file, a documented historical past of extreme psychological sickness, a drug abuse downside and an lively arrest warrant when he boarded the F prepare automotive on Might 1, 2023, and began screaming dying threats, trial testimony revealed over the previous three weeks.
Raiser famous that Penny used “a much less aggressive” restraint than what he’d been taught within the Marine Corps, arguing he supposed to carry Neely down however not damage him.
“What Danny did was not textbook,” he stated. “He utilized what he discovered as a Marine in a much less aggressive method … as a result of the softer aspect of Danny knowledgeable him to use one thing lower than a textbook Marine blood choke, by selecting to not squeeze Neely to unconsciousness.”
DANIEL PENNY DEFENSE CALLS FORENSIC PATHOLOGIST TO WITNESS STAND: ‘THE CHOKEHOLD DID NOT CAUSE THE DEATH’
Jordan Neely is pictured in 2009. (Andrew Savulich/New York Every day Information/Tribune Information Service by way of Getty Photographs)
Penny repeatedly eased up when Neely stopped struggling and solely squeezed to carry him down when he began making an attempt to interrupt free, Raiser stated.
“When you will have doubt that Penny squeezed Neely to the purpose of a chokehold dying, it is advisable to search for one other reason behind dying,” he stated, noting how protection skilled Dr. Satish Chundru testified that he believed Neely had died from a mixture of his use of the artificial drug K2, his sickle cell genetic dysfunction, psychosis and exertion from the wrestle.
“Danny couldn’t foresee a sickling dying,” the lawyer stated. “So he’s not responsible.”
DANIEL PENNY DEFENSE RESTS AS FINAL WITNESS REVEALS JORDAN NEELY HAD OPEN WARRANT, DEFENDANT DOESN’T TESTIFY
Chundru’s testimony contradicted the official post-mortem findings of Dr. Cynthia Harris of the New York Metropolis medical expert’s workplace who blamed Neely’s dying solely on the chokehold after watching video of the altercation earlier than toxicology outcomes had come again.
The protection additionally replayed bodycam video of responding officers, with one among them repeatedly saying Neely was nonetheless respiratory.
This screenshot from bystander video exhibits Jordan Neely being held in a chokehold on the New York Metropolis subway. (Luces de Nueva York/Juan Alberto Vazquez by way of Storyful)
Raiser painted a scene for the jury: The F prepare pulled right into a station and the “tall and muscular” Neely stepped on board, shouting erratically, excessive on medication. Neely had schizophrenia and a extreme case of paranoia and psychosis, he stated. The previous Michael Jackson impersonator hallucinated conversations with the late rapper Tupac Shakur and thought he heard the satan’s voice. Neely stormed onto the prepare, threw his jacket on the ground and declared that he did not care if he died or wound up in jail, allegedly threatening to “kill a motherf—er.”
“Will it’s me? Will it’s my youngsters?” Raiser requested. “Everybody was frozen with worry.”
Daniel Penny arrives to courtroom alongside legal professional Steve Raiser on the New York Legal Courtroom constructing in Manhattan on Nov. 14, 2024. (Adam Grey for Fox Information Digital )
He went via testimony from a number of feminine passengers, every of whom described worry and panic. He replayed bodycam footage from officers who spoke with them on the scene. All of them had the identical factor in frequent, he added.
“Daniel Penny is the one to guard them,” he stated. “Why? As a result of he had one thing distinctive to him: his coaching. When Danny acted, he did not know if Jordan was armed.”
A few of these passengers braved protesters exterior the courthouse to repay the favor, risking their very own security to testify at trial, he added.
He performed 911 calls: early studies of a knife or gun, confusion and a delayed police response.
A courtroom sketch depicts Daniel Penny and prosecutor Dafna Yoran on the primary day of testimony in Penny’s trial at Manhattan Supreme Courtroom in New York Metropolis on Nov. 1, 2024. (Jane Rosenberg)
Penny waited till officers arrived, he stated, then spoke with them willingly with no lawyer current, unaware that Neely had even died.
Yoran gave a closing on behalf of the prosecution.
“Nobody needed to die on Might 1, 2023,” she stated. “Jordan Neely did enter the subway automotive in an especially threatening method … a lot much less bodily drive would have carried out the job … Daniel Penny simply may have restrained Neely with out choking him to dying. We’re right here right now as a result of the defendant used manner an excessive amount of drive for manner too lengthy in manner too reckless of a way.”
Yoran argued that Penny may have let go when bystanders requested him to, replaying video of the incident repeatedly, a few of it laborious to listen to in courtroom.
She alleged that Penny knew Neely was “doubtless” useless however did not care when he remained on the scene and voluntarily spoke with law enforcement officials. They did not inform him Neely was useless, and so they did not arrest him. He surrendered 11 days later after Manhattan District Lawyer Alvin Bragg’s workplace secured a grand jury indictment in opposition to him.
If jurors do not attain a consensus by the top of the day Tuesday, Decide Maxwell Wiley requested them to return Wednesday to proceed deliberations. Because the begin of the trial, the courtroom had been in recess on Wednesdays.
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Penny faces a most of 15 years in jail if convicted of the highest cost of manslaughter. He’s additionally accused of criminally negligent murder.
