(NewsNation) — A trial for Daniel Penny, indicted in the chokehold death of Jordan Neely on a New York City subway last year, will proceed after a judge denied his request Wednesday to dismiss the case against him.
Now, Penny’s next court appearance is set for March 20, with the trial officially starting in fall.
Penny, a Marine veteran, pleaded not guilty in June 2023 to second-degree manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide.
On May 1, the New York Police Department reported, Neely boarded a train in Manhattan and began acting erratically. A video of the encounter shows Penny putting Neely in a chokehold and holding him down.
When officers arrived, they reported Neely was unconscious. He was taken to a nearby hospital and pronounced dead. A medical examiner ruled Neely’s death a homicide due to “compression of neck.”
A witness who captured video footage of the chokehold incident on the train said that Neely had been saying “I don’t have food, I don’t have to drink, I’m fed up … I don’t mind going to jail and getting life in prison … I’m ready to die,” according to NewsNation affiliate WPIX.
USA TODAY reports that Neely, a street performer known for his Michael Jackson impersonation, had been experiencing homelessness off and on and been in poor mental health. There were times in the months and weeks leading up to his death when he got treatment at a facility.
A lawyer for Neely’s family told USA TODAY that his mental health issues stemmed from when his mother was strangled in the apartment where they both lived. Neely had only been 14. “That’s the kind of trauma that can cause anyone to unravel,” Lennon Edwards said in an interview with the publication last year. “This is a family that’s extremely burdened.”
Attorney Donte Mills previously said Penny had “no authority” to place someone in a chokehold on “Dan Abrams Live.”
“He (Penny) knew or should have known that choking him (Neely) for 15 minutes would kill him. I can’t tell you what was in his mind when he approached him. I can’t do that. I wouldn’t try to do it. I’m not going to tell you why,” Mills said.
Mills said Penny was not attacked, or hit by Neely.
Attorneys for Penny, meanwhile, said their client “never intended to harm” the other man.
In a statement to the Law & Crime Network, Penny’s attorneys claimed their client was acting to protect others until help arrived.
On Wednesday, Mills said the judge’s ruling is a “win.”
Steven Raiser and Thomas Kenniff, who are representing Penny, said they disagree with the court’s decision not to dismiss the indictment, but “understand that the legal threshold to continue even an ill-conceived prosecution is very low.”
“We are confident that a jury, aware of Danny’s actions in putting aside his own safety to protect the lives of his fellow riders, will deliver a just verdict,” Raiser and Kenniff said in a statement.
This story is developing. Refresh for updates.