NEW YORK – Jurors in the Daniel Penny chokehold trial returned for a fourth day Friday to deliberations lasting just an hour before telling the court they could not reach an agreement on the top charge, manslaughter, because they were considering the fate of a 26 year old man. -old Navy veteran and architecture student accused of killing a mentally ill homeless man who threatened to kill people on a Manhattan subway.
Around 11 a.m., the jurors sent a note to the court stating, “We, the jury, request instructions from Judge (Maxwell) Wiley. At this time we are unable to reach a unanimous vote on Court 1 – Manslaughter in the second degree.” ”
The prosecution must prove that Penny acted recklessly when he grabbed Jordan Neely in a chokehold. Neely had stormed onto the train while on drugs and threatened to kill passengers during a psychotic episode, according to trial testimony.
DANIEL Penny trial: Jurors asked to revisit key evidence during deliberations
Daniel Penny leaves the Manhattan Criminal Courthouse in New York City on Thursday, December 5, 2024. (Adam Gray for Fox News Digital)
“In this case, I don’t think they can move on to count 2 unless they find the defendant not guilty of count 1,” Wiley told attorneys for both sides, despite protests from the prosecutor. “I must at least try to ask the jury to reach a verdict on count 1.”
Count two is a lesser charge of negligent homicide, which carries a maximum penalty of four years in prison.
He then put forward new instructions and gave the lawyers time to review the case.
Neely was a 30-year-old boy with schizophrenia who told straphangers that someone was “going to die today” and that he didn’t care about going to prison for life. Penny grabbed him from behind in a chokehold to stop the rampage.
Neely later died. He had an active arrest warrant at the time. He was high on K2, a synthetic marijuana drug that acts as a stimulant, and his lengthy criminal record included an attack on a 67-year-old woman in 2021 at another subway station.
Jordan Neely is pictured before going to see the 2009 Michael Jackson film ‘This is It’ outside the Regal Cinemas on 8th Avenue and 42nd Street in Times Square, New York. (Andrew Savulich/New York Daily News/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
Penny remained at the scene and spoke with responding officers. He also agreed to speak with NYPD detectives at the Fifth Precinct building.
“He was talking gibberish… but these guys are pushing people in front of trains and stuff,” he told investigators. There were more than twenty subway pushes in the year before Penny’s encounter with Neely.
Just three days earlier, a straphanger was stabbed into a J train with an ice pick, according to reports reports from that time. It was about a month after a PBS reporter arrived sucker punched on train No. 4. A week before, there was a push and the victim hit the side of a moving R train and survived.
In that climate of fear, witnesses said they were terrified of Neely, who shouted death threats at them.
Screenshot from bystander video of Jordan Neely being held in a chokehold on the New York City subway. (New York Lights/Juan Alberto Vazquez via Storyful)
Witness Ivette Rosario, a 19-year-old student, testified that Neely shouted that someone was “going to die that day.”
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP
Penny faces a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison if convicted on the more serious charges.
