Daniel Penny’s chokehold was sole cause of Jordan Neely’s death, medical examiner testifies

Jordan Neeley’s death was a direct result of the chokehold Daniel Penny held him in, a medical examiner testified Friday, rebutting assertions from the defense team that the former Marine did not apply enough pressure to kill the subway rider and that his death could have had some other cause.

“It’s my medical opinion that there are no alternative reasonable explanations for Mr. Neely’s death,” the medical examiner, Dr. Cynthia Harris, told jurors.

Harris ruled Neely died from “compression of neck (chokehold)” days after his killing. More than a month later, a grand jury indicted Penny on a manslaughter charge.

Attorneys for Penny, who is also charged with criminally negligent homicide, have refuted the medical examiner’s findings. In his opening statement, one of the attorneys, Thomas Kenniff, said Penny had restrained Neely with a “variation of a nonlethal chokehold” borrowed from martial arts training he had been taught in the Marine Corp.

The trial is in its fourth week and is expected to last through Thanksgiving.

Penny, 26, who was studying architecture before his arrest, had just left class and was on his way to the gym when he encountered Neely on an uptown F train on the afternoon of May 1, 2023, his attorneys have said.

When Neely, who had a history of mental illness and homelessness, boarded the train, he shouted at passengers, threw his jacket to the ground, talked about being hungry and thirsty and made statements about hurting people and wanting to go back to jail for life, witnesses have testified. He had synthetic cannabinoids in his system when he died.

Penny told two detectives in an interview at a precinct hours after Neely’s killing that he had acted to protect other passengers, that he did not put pressure on Neely’s neck and that he did not intend to kill him, according to a video of the interview that was shown in court Thursday. One of those detectives testified under cross examination that neither he nor the other detective had told Penny that Neely was dead when they interviewed him.

Prosecutors have sought to convince jurors that while Penny’s initial intent may have been “laudable,” his actions became “unnecessarily reckless” when he refused to let go of Neely, even after he had gone limp, the train had arrived at the next station and passengers were able to exit the subway car.

The prosecutors, the defense team and witnesses have said that some passengers feared Neely. But prosecutors have also said that no witnesses testified to seeing him display a weapon, threaten the use of a weapon or touch anyone before Penny wrapped his arms around him from behind and took him to the floor. A muffin was found in Neely’s jacket after he was killed.

The case has raised questions about safety within the city’s subway system, as well as about whether race played a role in Penny’s actions — Neely was Black and Penny is white.

Neely made his last voluntary movement before Penny let go of his neck, Harris testified, citing a video recording of those moments played in court. She explained frame by frame the precise moment Neely stopped breathing and went limp.

Harris directed jurors to moments in the video when she said Neely was struggling to breathe, making a hand gesture as a signal for help and when she observed his face had turned “uniformly purple” and he began twitching.

“I believe that at this point he has lost consciousness,” she said. “And that what we will see in the form of these twitchings represent brain injury.”

Assistant District Attorney Dafna Yoran questioned Harris about witnesses testifying that they did not hear Neely gag, gasp or say that he could not breathe. Harris said that did not surprise her.

Harris said that it was also unsurprising that some witnesses, including responding officers, testified that Neely had a pulse minutes after Penny released him from the chokehold.

“That makes perfect sense,” Harris said. “Because this is an asphyxial death. So in asphyxial death, for lack of a better way of putting it, the brain dies first.”

A pulse can be maintained for about 10 minutes in those cases, she said.

It “indicates that he had a normal functioning heart in a dying body,” Harris testified.

During his cross examination, defense attorney Steven Raiser sought to cast doubt on Harris’ findings by suggesting that she had been influenced by the video of Penny choking Neely.

He also questioned her about why she issued her ruling as to the cause of death before toxicology reports had been completed.

“No toxicological result imaginable was going to change my opinion,” Harris said.

Bystander video recorded by a freelance journalist that was widely shared online showed Penny holding Neely in a chokehold as he tried unsuccessfully to break free. Prosecutors have said Penny held Neely for almost six minutes. Two other men also helped to restrain Neely for some of that time. One of those men testified Tuesday that he had tried to convince Penny to loosen his grip on Neely.

On Thursday, a former Marine who trained Penny in various types of holds when they served together said he may have applied a chokehold improperly. The trainer, Joseph Caballer, told jurors that video appeared to show Penny trying to use a blood choke, which, if deployed properly, could cut off oxygen to a person’s brain in eight seconds.

Caballer said that as Penny and Neely struggled on the floor of the subway car, it is possible the hold could have turned into an air choke, which takes longer to render a person unconscious. He said the air choke is not taught by the Marine Corps.

“Once the individual is rendered unconscious, that’s when you are supposed to let go,” Caballer said.

More than two dozen other witnesses have testified, including police officers, passengers and members of the transit authority.

On Tuesday, Eric Gonzalez, a subway rider who helped Penny restrain Neely, testified that when he had came upon the two men, Penny had his legs around Neely’s waist and his arm around his neck.

He said he “jumped in and tried to help” without knowing why Penny was restraining Neely. Gonzalez said that after he held Neely’s wrist, he told Penny: “You can let him go. I am holding on to him,” but Penny continued to choke Neely while Gonzalez held on to his arms and wrist. Gonzalez testified that he and Penny let go of Neely after he went limp.

CORRECTION (Nov. 16, 2024, 11:53 a.m. ET): A previous version of this article mischaracterized a medical examiner’s finding. Chokehold was found to be Jordan Neely’s cause of death, not the manner of death.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com

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