Closing arguments in the NYC subway chokehold trial start today. Here’s how we got here

By Celina Tebor, Gloria Pazmino, Lauren del Valle and Eric Levenson, CNN

(CNN) — Closing arguments will take place Monday in Daniel Penny’s subway chokehold death trial in New York City. Afterward, a jury of 12 Manhattanites will deliberate his fate.

Penny, 26, is facing charges of second-degree manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide in the death of 30-year-old Jordan Neely, a homeless New Yorker. Penny is facing up to 15 years in prison if convicted of second-degree manslaughter or up to four years if convicted of criminally negligent homicide.

Neely boarded a subway car in Manhattan in May 2023, acting erratically and loudly yelling when Penny put him in a chokehold. The former Marine maintained the hold for about six minutes, even after Neely stopped moving, prosecutors have said.

Jurors have to answer whether Penny’s actions were justified that day. But the trial itself has raised broader questions of mental illness, race relations and the concept of vigilante justice.

Even without cameras or recording allowed in the courtroom, the case has been filled with video and audio evidence, including 911 calls, bystander video shot on smartphones, and police body camera footage capturing the chokehold and the moments following.

Prosecutors have argued Penny, who is White, showed indifference and acted with disregard by holding Neely, who is Black, in the chokehold for an excessive amount of time.

Defense attorneys focused on Penny’s character, presenting a string of witnesses from his childhood and time in the Marines, and then challenged the medical examiner’s ruling that Neely’s death was caused by the chokehold.

Here’s how the trial has developed so far.

Scared for your life, or just another day in New York?

During jury selection, most potential jurors said they ride the subway frequently and have witnessed outbursts from people acting erratically on the trains. Some said the outbursts made them feel “personally threatened,” while others said they did not.

Some witnesses described a callous disregard for Neely’s life, saying Penny didn’t let go of the chokehold even when others on the train told him to – including one man who initially helped hold Neely down. In a video presented at trial, an unseen bystander can be heard saying, “Let him go!” Another man, who was previously homeless himself, said Penny actively stopped him from assisting Neely.

Prosecutors called several bystander witnesses to the stand: Some testified they were scared by Neely and relieved when Penny put him in a chokehold. One woman said that when Neely entered the subway train, it was the first time in her life she felt like she was going to die.

Defense attorneys declined to call any bystanders who witnessed the subway chokehold, even saying the prosecution’s witnesses were making the case for the defense.

“As this testimony is coming out of the prosecution’s case, there’s actually very little for the defense to do,” Thomas Kenniff, a defense attorney for Penny, told reporters.

Penny’s military background comes into play

Penny served four years in the US Marines as a sergeant from 2017 to 2021, with his last duty assignment at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, according to military records.

Defense attorneys called several men Penny served with in the Marines to testify to his character: Nolan Drylie, who served with Penny in the same battalion, said Penny had a reputation for being “above reproach,” and that as Marines they were “taught to value life.”

As the defense sought to establish Penny’s good character with his military background, prosecutors alleged his training proved he knew what he was doing during the chokehold.

Penny was a green belt in the Marine Corps martial arts program, where he learned several chokes designed to cut off blood flow to the brain and render someone unconscious, his martial arts instructor in the Marines testified for the prosecution.

Joseph Caballer, the instructor, said after reviewing photos and videos of the chokehold in court that Penny incorrectly used a blood choke technique in the fatal restraint of Neely.

The prosecution also called several paramedics, who testified they made multiple failed attempts to revive Neely, who had no pulse and was not breathing when they arrived.

Medical experts spar over Neely’s cause of death

The final witnesses for both the prosecution and defense focused on Neely’s cause of death, with medical experts for each side offering opposing viewpoints on how the homeless man died.

Dr. Cynthia Harris, the medical examiner who performed Neely’s autopsy, found that the chokehold caused Neely’s death before reviewing results from several post-mortem tests including a toxicology report. Testifying for the prosecution, she said she had no doubt Neely died from neck compression and any drugs eventually found in his system wouldn’t have changed her mind.

But a forensic pathologist for the defense countered Harris’ conclusions, saying instead Neely died of a combination of factors including his sickle cell trait, schizophrenia, the struggle and restraint by Penny and K2 intoxication.

While a toxicology study found the presence of K2 – a synthetic cannabinoid – in Neely’s system, Harris testified she did not think the stimulant drug contributed to his death.

She acknowledged she made the determination before toxicology results were in, but said she did not feel it was necessary to wait – it would not have changed her mind if he had “enough fentanyl in his system to put down an elephant.”

A different medical expert for the defense testified about Neely’s medical history, presenting 50 pages of documents detailing his multiple interactions with the city’s health system over more than a dozen hospitalizations in six years. Some hospitalizations were due to his abuse of K2, according to the records.

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