Trial of Daniel Penny in Subway Killing Begins With Opening Statements

Mr. Penny is charged with manslaughter in the May 2023 killing of Jordan Neely, whom he put in a chokehold in a subway car. Video of the episode spread online.

Nearly 18 months after a video of Daniel Penny fatally choking another man in a subway car in Manhattan spread online, a jury on Friday began hearing the first official arguments about whether or not his actions were criminal.

Mr. Penny, a former Marine, is charged with manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide in the death of Jordan Neely, a 30-year-old homeless man who had a history of mental illness. Mr. Penny, 26, said he had stepped in to restrain Mr. Neely, who had been threatening passengers after boarding the train.

Opening statements began on Friday in the case, which centers on what happened as an F train traveled between stations and in the minutes after it stopped at Broadway-Lafayette Street on May 1, 2023.

In interviews with detectives that night, Mr. Penny said he intervened because he had felt Mr. Neely “was absolutely killing someone” that day.

Prosecutors have argued that Mr. Penny’s actions became criminal when he refused to let go of Mr. Neely long after he had gone limp, after the train doors had opened and after people had exited the subway car.

The opening statements were the first chance for the lawyers on both sides to start laying out their cases to the 12 jurors and four alternates who will spend the next several weeks listening to witnesses and experts. The trial is expected to last through Thanksgiving.

Dafna Yoran, an assistant district attorney, told the jurors in her opening statement that Mr. Penny’s actions were “unnecessarily reckless” and showed his belief “that Mr. Neely did not deserve even a minimum modicum of humanity.”

“As New Yorkers, we train ourselves not to engage, not to make eye contact, to pretend that people like Jordan Neely are not there,” she said, adding that on that day: “Jordan Neely demanded to be seen.”

Thomas A. Kenniff, Mr. Penny’s lawyer and a former Republican candidate for Manhattan district attorney, began his opening statement by describing Mr. Penny’s background. He said that Mr. Penny had grown up in Nassau County, on Long Island, before joining the Marines and recently becoming an architecture student.

On May 1 of last year, Mr. Penny was having an “ordinary day,” his lawyer said. He had just left class and was on his way to to the gym when he got on a crowded F train, according to Mr. Kenniff.

Mr. Penny and his fellow passengers had no way of knowing that their afternoon was about to be “shattered,” Mr. Kenniff told the jurors, when “a seething, psychotic Jordan Neely” entered the train and began shouting.

At first, Mr. Penny ignored Mr. Neely, Mr. Kenniff said. But then Mr. Neely began moving through the subway car, lunging at terrified passengers, Mr. Kenniff said.

When Mr. Neely began to approach a woman who was protecting her son behind a stroller and Mr. Penny heard Mr. Neely say “I will kill,” Mr. Penny acted, his lawyer said.

In that moment, Mr. Penny only cared about the “safety of his neighbors above that of himself,” Mr. Kenniff said.

Eyewitnesses at the scene and people who called 911 that day did not identify Mr. Penny as the aggressor, according to Mr. Kenniff.

Mr. Penny’s behavior doesn’t “have to make him a hero,” Mr. Kenniff said. “But it sure doesn’t make him a killer.”

A four-minute video captured by a freelance journalist at the scene shows Mr. Penny on the floor of the car, his arms and legs around Mr. Neely. After the train stops and Mr. Neely is pinned down, two other men grab his arms.

Later, according to body-worn camera footage, arriving police officers found Mr. Neely sprawled on the floor, unconscious. The footage shows one officer asking, “How did he end up in this condition?”

Mr. Penny, standing close by and watching, can be seen responding, “I just put him out,” and holding up his hands in an X crossed in front of him.

On Friday, Ms. Yoran quickly homed in on the prosecution’s argument that Mr. Penny’s actions “went way too far.”

Mr. Neely was high on synthetic cannabinoids at the time and suffering from mental illness, she said. When he entered the subway car that day, Ms. Yoran said, Mr. Neely started screaming.

“He talked about being hungry, he talked about being thirsty, he also made threats about hurting people and wanting to go back to jail for life,” Ms. Yoran said. She acknowledged that people in the car had felt frightened.

Mr. Penny’s initial intent to keep people safe was “even laudable,” she said, and he did not at first mean to kill Mr. Neely.

But Mr. Penny’s actions became criminal when he kept a chokehold on Mr. Neely after he was no longer a threat, she said. Mr. Penny kept Mr. Neely in a chokehold for nearly six minutes, she said.