NEW YORK– Daniel Penny does on trial in New York City in the choking death of Jordan Neely on the subway last spring.
Jury deliberations are ongoingwhile five men and seven women weigh up whether Penny is guilty manslaughter in the second degree or murder by criminal negligence at Neely’s death.
If convicted of manslaughter, he faces up to 15 years in prison.
Here’s everything we learned about Penny along the way.
Daniel Penny, a Navy veteran
Penny served four years in the United States Marine Corps, and his platoon sergeants testified at the trial. They spoke about the Marine Corps values of honor, courage and dedication and said if a member does not uphold these values, he or she will not be promoted.
Penny’s lawyers asked if he had a reputation for being “calm and peaceful,” to which a sergeant replied, “absolutely.”
“You have to be someone who shows empathy that is beyond reproach,” he said.
Another sergeant added: If you give him a task, I’m sure it will be completed and done well.
So does Penny’s Marine Corps martial arts instructor, Joseph Caballer testified about the chokehold he used on Neelywhere Marines are said to be trained to hold a choke for no more than five seconds. Under cross-examination, the instructor said that five seconds does not apply in the real world and that each “situation dictates this.”
Caballer said properly applying a choke “would render your aggressor unconscious,” at which point Marines are told to release pressure immediately or “could result in injury or death.”
He then testified about the differences between a “blood choke” and an “air choke,” and walked the jury frame by frame through the video of the chokehold used. In one shot, Caballer said it appeared as if Penny’s forearm was pressing against Neely’s windpipe.
“Is this an inappropriate blood constriction?” the prosecutors asked.
“Yes,” Caballer said.
“Is it potentially fatal?” the prosecutors asked.
“Yes, absolutely,” Caballer said.
On the cross, Caballer said it was hard to tell if pressure was being applied at certain times and that arm placements could shift during a struggle. Caballer added that he couldn’t tell from the video whether Penny ever performed a “complete” blood or air choke.
Going to school for architecture
After leaving the Marines, Penny took time to travel and then applied to colleges. his mother, Gina, said from the stand. At the time of the incident he was 24 years old.
His mother said he was pursuing a degree in architecture at the New York City College of Technology and planned to transfer later. He lived in an apartment in the East Village, taught swimming lessons at a gym and worked at a restaurant in Brooklyn.
She also said he learned honesty, humility and kindness growing up, did well in school and sports, and played bass in a few Long Island orchestras. She looked at him as she testified and said she loved him with all her heart.
“Of course I would be here for my son,” she said.
Penny spoke in a video statement after the incident
Cent released a video statement through his lawyer in the days after the deadly encounter. He said he acted in self-defense when Neely acted erratically on an F train in SoHo.
“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 in the video. “I was scared for myself, but I looked around, I saw women and children. He was screaming in their faces… I didn’t want to be in that situation, but I couldn’t just sit still and let him carry out threats.”
He said he wasn’t trying to kill Neely and that race was not a factor.
“Some people say I tried to strangle him, which isn’t true either. I tried to restrain him. You can see in the video his chest is clearly rising and falling,” Penny said. “I did not see a black man threatening passengers. I saw a man threatening passengers, many of whom were people of color.”
It was Penny Charged 11 days after the incident and released on $100,000 bail. A An online fundraiser was set up to help with his legal costsraising over $3,222,053 to date.
Who was Jordan Neely?
Neely was a 30-year-old subway performer known for his Michael Jackson impersonations.
Records show he struggled with homelessness and mental illness after his mother was murdered in 2007.
“When they strangled Jordan, they put their arms around us. We all have the right to live,” said Pastor Al Sharpton. said at his funeral.
Are The death led to days of protests and questions about how New York City responds to people in mental health crisis.
“Jordan didn’t irritate anyone on the train. Jordan was screaming for help,” Sharpton continued. “We continue to criminalize people with mental illness.”
“Jordan was a New Yorker. He was loved. He was cared for. He was seen by this community. He contributed to this community,” said Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
“We can’t just say that you can strangle someone and that Jordan Neely’s life mattered,” said attorney Jumaane Williams. “We need to talk about how he died, why he died that way, and also about the failures that happened long before that.”
CBS News New York learned that Neely agreed to outpatient mental health treatment as part of a plea deal in a previous arrest, but he left the program within a few weeks. As a result, an arrest warrant was issued for him.
