Defense expert testifies that Jordan Neely didn't die from Daniel Penny's chokehold

A forensic pathologist testifying for the defense in the Manhattan subway chokehold trial told the jury that Jordan Neely likely died from a combination of a red blood cell ailment, synthetic marijuana intoxication, stress from the struggle and the effects of schizophrenia.

Dr. Satish Chundru, a professional witness and freelance coroner in Texas, said that he eliminated the chokehold as a cause of death because Neely, 30, never fell unconscious before he died.

"Based on the evidence, this is not a chokehold death," he told the jury.

Chundru is likely the last witness who will take the stand in the Manhattan District Attorney’s case against Daniel Penny, 26, a Marine Corps veteran, originally from West Islip.

Penny currently stands trial for second-degree manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide for the death of Neely, a homeless man who made money impersonating Michael Jackson in the New York City subway system.

Witnesses in the trial testified that Neely terrified them when he entered the subway car at about 2:30 p.m. on May 1, 2023, screaming and lunging at the other passengers.

Penny, who was living in the East Village at the time, came up behind Neely and put his right arm around the homeless man’s neck, bringing him down to the subway floor.

For more than five minutes, according to prosecutors, Penny struggled with Neely on the ground with others joining in to help, until he stopped moving. Police were slow to arrive to the scene, according to testimony, and attempts to revive Neely were unsuccessful.

Dr. Cynthia Harris, a city medical examiner, testified last week that the force of Penny’s arm around Neely’s neck forced his tongue and other soft tissue back against the homeless man’s windpipe, asphyxiating him.

Harris admitted on cross-examination that her conclusion, which was supported by a panel of city forensic examiners, did not include the toxicology report that showed synthetic marijuana in his system.

Chundru, who said that he had performed more than 9,000 forensic examinations in his career, told defense attorney Steven Raiser that he conclusively excluded the chokehold as a cause of death because Neely appeared to be conscious up to the point where he died.

He said that a blood choke, which stops blood flow to the brain through the carotid artery, first causes unconsciousness within a matter of seconds.

A freelance journalist’s cellphone recording shows Neely and Penny wrestling on the ground for minutes, which led Chundru to conclude the blood flow was not blocked to the homeless man’s brain.

The defense witness said that he concluded Neely did not die of an air choke in which the airways are blocked and he couldn’t take oxygen into his lungs because the bruising found in the autopsy was not sufficient to show the windpipe had been blocked off.

Instead, Chundru said that he believed that Neely came onto the train in the throes of a psychotic episode caused by his schizophrenia and aggravated by intoxication from synthetic marijuana.

Neely’s preexisting "sickle-cell trait," which the doctor said is a normally benign condition, can kill when the body comes under extreme exertions, like athletic competition or a struggle such as the one at issue in the trial.

Under stress, the red blood cells become deformed into a crescent or sickle shape, they stick to the sides of the veins and cause clogging, and they fail to deliver oxygen to the body properly, Chundru testified.

Additionally, the strain of his schizophrenia and synthetic marijuana habit undermined his health further, causing his death, according to the doctor.

"It’s the combined effects of those four," he said. "In these cases, it’s a combination of things."

During cross-examination, which could continue Friday, Manhattan prosecutor Dafna Yoran sought to cast doubt on Chundru’s conclusions and his impartiality.

She noted that he had already billed the defense team more than $90,000 for his expert opinion and suggested he had tailored his conclusion to profit from the case.

"That’s not how I operate," he said. "I always try to find the truth and wherever that lands, that lands."

Under questioning by the prosecutor, Chundru criticized the New York City Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, noting that they drew their conclusion in Neely’s death without the toxicology report.

"I was told that they actually rendered the cause of death on the second day, that was shocking," he said. "You pend the case, you have to get all of the information."