Daniel Penny, former Marine and Long Island native, pleads not guilty to indictment charging him in subway chokehold death of Jordan Neely

A grand jury indictment unsealed in Manhattan on Wednesday charged Daniel Penny, the Long Island native accused of killing an agitated subway rider last month after putting him in a chokehold, with second-degree manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide.

Penny, 24, of Queens, pleaded not guilty to the charges during a four-minute arraignment Wednesday morning in lower Manhattan. The former U.S. Marine was initially charged with second-degree manslaughter last month in the May 1 death of Jordan Neely, a former Michael Jackson impersonator who authorities said struggled with mental illness and homelessness in recent years.

New York Supreme Court Justice Maxwell Wiley ordered Penny to return to court on Oct. 25. He remains free on $100,000 bail. 

“Daniel Penny stands indicted on a charge of manslaughter after allegedly putting Jordan Neely in a deadly chokehold for several minutes until and after he stopped moving,” Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said in a statement. “I hope Mr. Neely’s loved ones are on the path toward healing as they continue to mourn this tragic loss.” 

Penny’s attorneys, Steven Raiser and Thomas Keniff, said they were confident that a trial jury would find Penny's actions on the train were justified. Penny has said he was protecting himself and other passengers, claiming Neely shouted “I’m gonna’ kill you” and that he was “ready to die” or go to jail for life. 

“We are a long way off from trial, but all the evidence we’ve seen is that our client acted under the law,” Keniff told reporters outside the courthouse following the arraignment. 

Prosecutors said Neely, 30, entered a northbound F train at the Second Ave. station and began making verbal threats to passengers and begging for money. Penny approached Neely from behind and put him in a chokehold at the Broadway-Lafayette station less than a minute later, officials said. The defendant held Neely in the chokehold for several minutes, even after Neely’s body went limp, authorities said.

Attorneys Donte Mills and Lennon Edwards, who are representing the Neely family, said the indictment — unsealed nearly two months after Neely's death — was the result of pressure applied by the Neely family and community activists. New York police did not immediately arrest Penny after Neely's death even though there were witnesses and video of the incident. 

"It took Herculean efforts not only by our firm but also by the people of New York City to protest and say this was a murder," Edwards said. "That is not justice."

Neely had been arrested multiple times and had recently pleaded guilty to assaulting a 67-year-old woman leaving a subway station in 2021, according to court records.

The lawyers said his mental health issues stemmed in part from the 2007 murder of his mother, Christie Neely. Christie Neely's former boyfriend, Shawn Southerland, was convicted of murder in Jersey City in 2012 and sentenced to 30 years in prison. Jordan Neely, 14 years old at the time of the slaying, was in the apartment when his mother was strangled to death and later testified against Southerland, the attorneys argued.

A freelance journalist recorded Neely struggling to free himself, then lapsing into unconsciousness, said he was acting aggressively and frightening people but hadn’t assaulted anyone. Neely was Black; Penny is white.

Neely’s death prompted protests by many who saw it as an example of racial injustice, setting off a debate about vigilantism and public safety in New York City. Several commentators, including the Rev. Al Sharpton, compared the chokehold death to the Bernhard Goetz case in 1984, in which a white gunman shot four Black men on a subway train. 

Others have rallied around Penny, including several of the Republican candidates for president and Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, who held a rally in support of Penny in Manhattan last month. A fund set up to pay for Penny’s legal defense has raised more than $2.8 million, according to his lawyers.