Daniel Penny Arraigned on Manslaughter Charge in Jordan Neely Killing
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Daniel Penny, the man who choked and killed Jordan Neely on the subway last week, was arraigned in Manhattan Criminal Court on Friday on a charge of second-degree manslaughter, taking his first formal steps as a defendant in a case that has riveted New York City.
Mr. Penny, handcuffed and dressed in a dark gray suit and a white dress shirt, stood straight and still before the judge, Kevin McGrath. He did not enter a plea to the charge, as he has yet to be indicted by a grand jury, and was released after posting bail. Prosecutors also asked that he surrender his passport within 48 hours.
Mr. Penny, a 24-year-old Marine Corps veteran, did not speak, other than responding affirmatively to the judge’s procedural questions, saying that he understood when he was next to appear.
His lawyer, Thomas Kenniff, revealed some information about his client, about whom little has been disclosed, saying that the native New Yorker is enrolled in college and studying architecture, and listing his military accomplishments.
In a statement, the Manhattan district attorney, Alvin L. Bragg, said that his office had determined there was probable cause to arrest Mr. Penny after numerous witness interviews, a review of photos and video footage, and discussions with the medical examiner’s office, which determined that Mr. Neely’s cause of death was homicide.
“Jordan Neely should still be alive today, and my thoughts continue to be with his family and loved ones as they mourn his loss during this extremely painful time,” Mr. Bragg said.
Earlier on Friday, Mr. Penny had surrendered to the police, arriving at the Fifth Precinct around 8 a.m. He was led out of the building two and a half hours later, his hands cuffed behind his back, and put into a black police car waiting to take him to Manhattan Criminal Court.
On May 1, Mr. Penny encountered Mr. Neely, 30, on an F train and held him in a chokehold for several minutes, killing him. Witnesses said that Mr. Neely, who had a history of mental illness, was acting in a “hostile and erratic manner” toward other passengers, according to the police. But there is no indication that he physically attacked anyone before Mr. Penny began choking him.
Joshua Steinglass, the prosecutor leading the investigation, said during the arraignment that interviews, 911 calls and other information showed that Mr. Neely had boarded the northbound F train at the Second Avenue station.
“Several witnesses observed Mr. Neely making threats and scaring passengers,” Mr. Steinglass said.
Mr. Penny approached Mr. Neely, “placed him in a chokehold taking him down to the ground” and continued to hold him there “for several minutes,” Mr. Steinglass said.
The struggle was captured in a four-minute video that showed Mr. Penny continue to choke Mr. Neely for 50 seconds after Mr. Neely had stopped moving. The police interviewed Mr. Penny that night, but released him without charging him.
A week and a half later, on Thursday, the Manhattan district attorney’s office confirmed that it planned to charge Mr. Penny in the killing.
Mr. Penny’s lawyers, Steven M. Raiser and Mr. Kenniff, said in a statement on Thursday that they were “confident that once all the facts and circumstances surrounding this tragic incident are brought to bear, Mr. Penny will be fully absolved of any wrongdoing.”
In the days after Mr. Neely’s killing, many city leaders, politicians and advocates for New Yorkers struggling with mental illness and homelessness had called for Mr. Penny’s immediate arrest. They said Mr. Neely’s killing highlighted the city’s failure to care for its most vulnerable and marginalized residents.
Advocates and some Democratic politicians had also criticized Mayor Eric Adams for his muted initial response to the killing. Days later, on Wednesday, the mayor said that Mr. Neely’s “life mattered” and that his death was a “tragedy that never should have happened.”
In a statement on Thursday, after the district attorney’s office said it planned to charge Mr. Penny, Mr. Adams said: “I have the utmost faith in the judicial process, and now justice can move forward against Daniel Penny.”
Mr. Neely, who had been a subway performer known for his impersonation of Michael Jackson, in recent years appears to have experienced severe mental illness.
He had hundreds of encounters with workers who try to help homeless people on the subways, according to an employee of the Bowery Residents’ Committee, a nonprofit that has a city contract to do that work.
He was on the city’s so-called “Top 50” list, a roster of the homeless people whom officials consider most urgently in need of assistance and treatment.
Mr. Neely had racked up more than three dozen arrests, many for minor crimes like turnstile-jumping or trespassing, but at least four were on charges of punching people, two of them in the subway system.
But his fellow passengers on May 1 would have had no knowledge of his past. Juan Alberto Vazquez, a freelance journalist who recorded the video that captured what happened inside the subway car, recalled that Mr. Neely said, “‘I don’t mind going to jail and getting life in prison,’” and “‘I’m ready to die.’”
By the time the train stopped at Broadway-Lafayette, where it remained, Mr. Penny had pinned Mr. Neely on the ground in a chokehold, as two other men grabbed his arms and legs. Mr. Vazquez said he had not seen Mr. Penny grab Mr. Neely but that he had heard a thump and had then seen both men on the floor.
The police said they had received a call at 2:27 p.m. about a fight on an F train at the station.
Mr. Neely was taken to Lenox Health hospital in Greenwich Village, where he was pronounced dead. Two days later, the medical examiner’s office issued its homicide ruling and said that the cause of Mr. Neely’s death was compression of his neck.
Charges did not come until this week. Over his tenure as district attorney, Mr. Bragg has often taken time to deliberate over legal matters before acting.
But last summer, the office did act quickly, charging a bodega clerk who fatally stabbed an attacker with murder, only to drop the charge after weeks of outcry. That case, which played out publicly, may in part have informed the office’s caution in regard to Mr. Penny.
As news of Mr. Penny’s charges reverberated on Thursday, Marc H. Morial, the National Urban League president and chief executive officer, said in a statement that the district attorney’s decision to charge him “reminds us that a measured response to this shocking episode was necessary.”
“While not always swift, a methodical approach to justice in this case bends towards the fair application of the rule of law,” he said.
Left-leaning politicians have led a chorus of criticism over how prosecutors and the mayor responded after the killing, which some have called a “murder” and others a “lynching.”
“The system is doing what it’s designed to do, which is demonize Black men,” Councilwoman Althea Stevens said Thursday before the charges were known. “Until we acknowledge that, nothing is going to change.”
The charge of second-degree manslaughter, also known as reckless homicide, will require prosecutors to prove that Mr. Penny caused Mr. Neely’s death and did so recklessly, meaning that he knew that the chokehold could kill Mr. Neely. If Mr. Penny is convicted, he could spend up to 15 years in prison.
In a murder case, prosecutors would likely have had to show that Mr. Penny had intended to cause Mr. Neely’s death or acted with “depraved indifference,” which might have been a difficult standard to meet.
Mr. Penny’s lawyers will most likely argue that the force he used against Mr. Neely was justified, given the threat that he believed Mr. Neely posed. Prosecutors will have to prove that Mr. Penny used deadly force without having believed that Mr. Neely was doing the same, or was about to.
While a grand jury will continue to hear evidence, Mr. Penny’s surrender makes it clear that the investigation had turned up enough that prosecutors felt comfortable charging him before the jurors made a decision.
However, the office still must secure a grand jury indictment to proceed with a felony case against Mr. Penny, who grew up on Long Island and has no criminal record.
Nate Schweber, Andy Newman and Lauren McCarthy contributed reporting.