A grand jury has indicted a U.S. Marine veteran in the fatal choking death of 30-year-old Jordan Neely on board a New York City subway car in early May, according to the New York Times and several other national and local media outlets.
Daniel Penny, 24, had previously turned himself in after Manhattan prosecutors announced ithat he would face a secondary manslaughter charge in the death of Neely, a Black man experiencing homelessness and mental health problems.
If convicted, Penny could be sentenced to up to 15 years.
Days of angry protests erupted in New York after police questioned and released Penny on the day of the incident, which took place on the afternoon of May aboard the city’s F train. Neely had been screaming on the train, saying he was hungry and thirsty but without physically attacking anyone, according to a freelance journalist who witnessed the incident.
Attorneys for Penny have said their client and two other passengers who helped restrain Neely amid the tense situation acted in self-defense. The chokehold lasted for several minutes.
A history of mental health problems
Friends said Neely, a onetime subway performer known for his flawless Michael Jackson impression, had dealt with homelessness and mental illness in recent years. Lawyers for his family said Neely’s mental health issues had begun at age 14, when his mother was murdered by her boyfriend.
Neely’s mother was strangled at age 36 by her boyfriend in the apartment where she and her teen son lived, the family’s lawyer Lennon Edwards told USA TODAY. When Neely tried to say goodbye to his mother before leaving for school the day of her murder, he didn’t know her fate – he only knew that her boyfriend had told him he couldn’t enter the bedroom where his mother’s body was, Edwards said.
Homeless advocates had criticized Penny for using the chokehold, saying he should have instead resorted to “non-violent de-escalation techniques” to quell the situation.
New York prosecutors Donte Mills and Lennon Edwards have said witnesses told them Neely may have defecated himself while on the floor of the subway car − a sign that he was losing his life. He was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital shortly after.
Neely had been arrested before, most recently pleading guilty to the 2021 assault of a 67-year-old woman as she left a subway station. A warrant for Neely’s arrest was still active at the time of his death after he missed a court date related to that case.
Contributing: Claire Thornton
