By newsfirstusa 
NEW YORK — Ny prosecutors once more accused Daniel Penny of failing to acknowledge the “humanity” of Jordan Neely throughout their terminating arguments Monday, weeks upcoming being accused of unfairly hinting at racial undertones in a case that doesn’t contain abhor crime fees.
“He didn’t recognize that Jordan Neely was a person,” Ny prosecutor Dafna Yoran informed the jury. “He saw him as a person that needed to be eliminated.”
She claimed that Penny “was so reckless with Neely’s life because he didn’t seem to recognize his humanity.” She replayed video of Penny’s police interrogation, the place he referred to Neely as a “crackhead” and informed detectives, “You know these guys, they’re pushing people in front of trains and stuff.”
“We’ve all spoken dismissively about people like Jordan Neely,” she mentioned. “Maybe we, too, have lumped them all together like this, but the context is very telling here. When the defendant is talking like this about Mr. Neely, he knows he very likely had killed him. Can you imagine a reasonable person speaking like this about a human being that he or she had just killed?”
DANIEL PENNY RETURNS TO COURT FOR CLOSING ARGUMENTS IN SUBWAY CHOKEHOLD TRIAL
Prosecutor Dafna Yoran departs Daniel Penny’s trial on the Ny Splendid Legal Courtroom construction in Unutilized York Town on Dec. 2, 2024. (Julia Bonavita/Fox Information Virtual)
Penny used to be now not informed about Neely’s demise when he readily assuredly to talk with NYPD detectives.
Yoran impaired similar language earlier within the trial throughout her opening commentary, and her staff additionally allowed observers to explain Penny as “the White man” and a “murderer,” prompting Penny’s protection legal professionals to object and ask the court docket to claim a mistrial over the language.
Pronouncing Penny didn’t see the humanity in Neely unfairly invoked race, in line with his protection, and blended with the alternative language, it could put together it not possible to get a good trial. The pass judgement on denied that previous movement to claim a mistrial.
All through the protection’s terminating arguments Monday, which got here prior to Yoran’s remarks, Penny’s protection lawyer, Steven Raiser, argued that the 26-year-old structure scholar stepped in upcoming town of Unutilized York failed passengers at the subway automobile when Neely, a 30-year-old homeless guy prime on medicine and affected by schizophrenia, barged in and began threatening riders.
Daniel Penny arrives on the Ny Legal Courthouse construction in Unutilized York Town on Nov. 25, 2024. (Rashid Umar Abbasi for Fox Information Virtual)
“The government wasn’t there. The police weren’t there. Danny was,” Raiser informed the jury. “And when he needed help no one was there. The government has the nerve to blame Danny because police weren’t there? Blame Danny for holding on when police weren’t there?”
It took seven mins for police to answer the 911 name and 20 mins prior to medics arrived, he mentioned. Neely used to be “on a collision course with himself,” and a “broken system” failed everybody concerned, the attorney mentioned.
Penny is on trial going through fees of manslaughter and criminally negligent murder.
Neely had a long arrest document, a documented historical past of extreme psychological problem, a drug abuse defect and an lively arrest warrant when he aboard the F teach automobile on Would possibly 1, 2023, and began screaming demise warnings, trial testimony seen over the occasion 3 weeks.
Raiser famous that Penny impaired “a less aggressive” restraint than what he’d been taught within the Marine Corps, arguing he meant to store Neely ill however now not harm him.
“What Danny did was not textbook,” he mentioned. “He applied what he learned as a Marine in a less aggressive manner … because the softer side of Danny informed him to apply something less than a textbook Marine blood choke, by choosing not to squeeze Neely to unconsciousness.”
Jordan Neely is pictured in 2009. (Andrew Savulich/Unutilized York Day by day Information/Tribune Information Provider by way of Getty Photographs)
Penny many times eased up when Neely banned suffering and simplest squeezed to store him ill when he began looking to fracture detached, Raiser mentioned.
“When you have doubt that Penny squeezed Neely to the point of a chokehold death, you need to look for another cause of death,” he mentioned, noting how protection professional Dr. Satish Chundru testified that he believed Neely had died from a mixture of his usefulness of the artificial drug K2, his sickle mobile genetic weakness, psychosis and exertion from the attempt.
“Danny could not foresee a sickling death,” the attorney mentioned. “So he is not guilty.”
Chundru’s testimony contradicted the professional post-mortem findings of Dr. Cynthia Harris of the Unutilized York Town clinical examiner’s place of business who blamed Neely’s demise only at the chokehold upcoming staring at video of the altercation prior to toxicology effects had come again.
The protection additionally replayed bodycam video of responding officials, with certainly one of them many times pronouncing Neely used to be nonetheless respiring.
This screenshot from bystander video presentations Jordan Neely being held in a chokehold at the Unutilized York Town subway. (Luces de Nueva York/Juan Alberto Vazquez by way of Storyful)
Raiser painted a scene for the jury: The F teach pulled right into a station and the “tall and muscular” Neely stepped on board, shouting unevenly, prime on medicine. Neely had schizophrenia and a extreme case of paranoia and psychosis, he mentioned. The previous Michael Jackson impersonator hallucinated conversations with the past due rapper Tupac Shakur and concept he heard the satan’s expression. Neely stormed onto the teach, threw his jacket at the ground and declared that he didn’t assist if he died or wound up in jail, allegedly threatening to “kill a motherf—er.”
“Will it be me? Will it be my children?” Raiser requested. “Everyone was frozen with fear.”
Daniel Penny arrives to court docket along lawyer Steve Raiser on the Unutilized York Legal Courtroom construction in Ny on Nov. 14, 2024. (Adam Grey for Fox Information Virtual )
He went via testimony from a couple of feminine passengers, each and every of whom described concern and panic. He replayed bodycam photos from officials who spoke with them on the scene. All of them had the similar factor in usual, he added.
“Daniel Penny is the one to protect them,” he mentioned. “Why? Because he had something unique to him: his training. When Danny acted, he didn’t know if Jordan was armed.”
A few of the ones passengers braved protesters outdoor the courthouse to pay off the bias, risking their very own protection to testify at trial, he added.
He performed 911 screams: early experiences of a knife or gun, hesitancy and a behind schedule police response.
A court docket caricature depicts Daniel Penny and prosecutor Dafna Yoran at the first date of testimony in Penny’s trial at Ny Splendid Courtroom in Unutilized York Town on Nov. 1, 2024. (Jane Rosenberg)
Penny waited till officials arrived, he mentioned, nearest spoke with them eagerly and not using a attorney provide, unaware that Neely had even died.
Yoran gave a terminating to the behalf of the prosecution.
“No one had to die on May 1, 2023,” she mentioned. “Jordan Neely did enter the subway car in an extremely threatening manner … so much less physical force would have done the job … Daniel Penny easily could have restrained Neely without choking him to death. We are here today because the defendant used way too much force for way too long in way too reckless of a manner.”
Yoran argued that Penny will have shed when bystanders requested him to, replaying video of the incident many times, a few of it parched to listen to in court docket.
She alleged that Penny knew Neely used to be “likely” useless however didn’t assist when he remained on the scene and readily spoke with law enforcement officials. They didn’t inform him Neely used to be useless, they usually didn’t arrest him. He surrendered 11 days upcoming upcoming Ny District Lawyer Alvin Bragg’s place of business tie a lavish jury indictment in opposition to him.
If jurors don’t succeed in a consensus through the top of the date Tuesday, Pass judgement on Maxwell Wiley requested them to go back Wednesday to proceed deliberations. For the reason that get started of the trial, the court docket have been in rest on Wednesdays.
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Penny faces a most of 15 years in jail if convicted of the lead price of manslaughter. He’s additionally accused of criminally negligent murder.