Daniel Penny, the Long Island man charged in the subway chokehold killing of Jordan Neely, pleaded not guilty to manslaughter charges in Manhattan on Wednesday.
The former Marine appeared alongside his lawyers for a brief court appearance two weeks after a grand jury indicted him on second-degree manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide charges.
“Not guilty,” Penny told the court when asked how he wished to plead.
Penny’s attorneys said they planned to argue that he employed his “right and duty” to protect others from “grave harm.” They said they were confident he would clear his name.
“We feel very confident that a Manhattan jury will be able to judge this case fairly and return a not guilty verdict, particularly since most of the members of the jury will have had experiences similar to what our client observed on the subway during this incident,” Thomas Kenniff told the Daily News after the hearing.
“He’s feeling confident. Obviously, it’s not a situation that anybody wants to be in,” Kenniff added. “He’s someone who’s faced adversity before.”
Outside the courthouse, Neely’s lawyers condemned his alleged killer, who they said looked away from the slain man’s family seated inside the courtroom.
“Daniel Penny killed a man; he took a life,” Donte Mills said. “For anybody who’s court curious, no, Daniel Penny did not have the courage to look Mr. Jordan’s father, Andre, in the eye.”
Penny’s plea paves the way for a trial in the high-profile case that’s generated national attention.
Still unclear is what exactly happened before the chokehold. Neely, who got on the train at Second Ave. and was on the floor with Penny’s arm around his neck when it reached the next stop, isn’t accused of attacking anyone.
At Penny’s first court appearance in May, Manhattan prosecutors said Neely got on the train and started “making threats and scaring passengers” when Penny approached him from behind and put him in a…
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