Penny trial jury deliberates over Neely chokehold charges

LOWER MANHATTAN (PIX11) – In the Daniel Penny chokehold trial, anticipation builds after three days of jury deliberations without a verdict. 

The jury of seven women and five men weigh the fate of Penny, 26, over whether or not the neck hold in which he put Jordan Neely, 30, was criminally overly aggressive or if it was a justified act. 

As the jury tried to decide whether to convict Penny of manslaughter or criminally negligent homicide or to acquit him of either charge, they asked to hear official legal descriptions of aspects of those charges. 

Penny, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran, is accused of using a chokehold to kill Neely, a homeless man with a history of mental illness, who was also fairly well known as a Michael Jackson impersonator. 

On Thursday morning, jurors were asked to view the video of the May 1, 2023, encounter on an F train subway car once again. 

A smartphone video recorded by an eyewitness shows Penny holding down Neely, with Penny's arms around Neely's neck. The nearly six-minute-long hold happened after Neely had boarded a subway car screaming that he didn't care if he died or went to jail, according to witnesses. 

The smartphone video of that incident, as well as police bodycam footage and NYPD video of Penny being interviewed by detectives at a station house, were all viewed by jurors on Thursday.

They also asked Judge Maxwell Wiley to read specific legal definitions related to criminal loss of life out loud. The first definition was for "recklessness," which is directly related to the second-degree manslaughter charge that Penny faces. 

As Judge Wiley pointed out, manslaughter is when a person recklessly causes the death of another person. He read the definition of "reckless" from New York State Penal Law Section 125.15(1) that a person acts recklessly with respect to death when that person: "engages in conduct which creates or contributes to a substantial and unjustifiable risk that another person's death will occur, and when he or she is aware of and consciously disregards that risk, and when that risk is of such nature and degree that disregard of it constitutes a gross deviation from the standard of conduct that a reasonable person would observe in the situation."

The other definition that jurors asked for was "criminally negligent," a term related to Penny's lesser charge of criminally negligent homicide. 

The judge read, in part, that a person acts with criminal negligence with respect to a death when that person "engages in blameworthy conduct so serious that it creates or contributes to a substantial and unjustifiable risk that another person's death will occur..." 

If jurors find Penny guilty of manslaughter, he faces up to 20 years in prison, and the lesser charge of criminally negligent homicide does not need to be considered.

If he's found guilty of criminally negligent homicide, he would face up to four years in prison. 

Deliberations continue on Friday at 9:45 a.m.