The Marine veteran accused of killing a homeless man on the subway in the spring placed him in a chokehold for approximately six minutes, according to legal papers filed by prosecutors on Wednesday.
In a 32-page motion, the Manhattan district attorney’s office offered one of the clearest pictures yet of what they say happened inside the uptown F train where Daniel Penny, 25, choked Jordan Neely, 30. Footage of the fatal chokehold went viral, and the killing sparked protests and calls for better treatment of New Yorkers like Neely, who are homeless and have serious and untreated mental illness. Penny got his own groundswell of support, with a legal defense fund established on his behalf raising almost $3 million.
A grand jury indicted Penny on charges of manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide. He has pleaded not guilty. Steven Raiser, Penny’s attorney, said in a text message that he plans to file a reply in the coming weeks “to correct much of the misstatements of law and fact” in the prosecution’s motion.
Assistant District Attorney Joshua Steinglass wrote in legal papers that witnesses on the subway that day generally agreed that Neely got on the F train at Second Avenue on the Lower East Side. Right away, he started yelling about being homeless, hungry and thirsty, Steinglass said. Most witnesses also recalled he said something about being willing to go to jail or prison, he said. From there, Steinglass said, their stories diverged.
Some witnesses who testified before the grand jury said Neely threatened to hurt people, while others did not, according to Steinglass.
Penny’s defense attorneys have said that fear justified their client’s actions and that he was acting to protect himself and others. In their own legal motion filed last month, they noted witnesses who said in the grand jury that they were genuinely afraid, including one woman who said she had encountered many things in the years she has ridden the subway, “but nothing that put…
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