Trial of former Marine Daniel Penny accused in NYC subway chokehold death of deranged homeless man begins Friday

The highly-anticipated trial of former Marine Daniel Penny begins with opening arguments Friday. Penny was charged with second-degree manslaughter and negligent homicide in the fatal choking of a homeless man, Jordan Neely. The incident occurred on an uptown F train in New York City in 2023 after Neely began threatening to people on the train, per witnesses.

Penny and other men on the train attempted to restrain Neely with Penny putting him in a chokehold. Doctors pronounced Neely dead at a hospital. The death was ruled a homicide by neck compression.

New York District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s ADA Dafna Yoran admitted during jury selection, "This is not an easy case … of a bad man doing a bad thing. It’s not easy finding someone guilty of killing somebody when you know they didn’t mean it."

Daniel Penny’s defense team has also been looking for jurors and reportedly has sought the advice of a consultant who worked on the jury selection process for Kyle Rittenhouse. Rittenhouse was acquitted of homicide charges when he pleaded self-defense in the shooting deaths of two men during a violent protest in Kenosha, Wisconsin in August 2020.

Neely was known to be suffering from mental illness and had a criminal record related to violence he had been involved with on the subway. Penny could be sentenced to 19 years in prison if he’s convicted on both charges of manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide.