Victim Jordan Neely suffered from schizophrenia, wild mood swings, psychiatrist testifies at Daniel Penny trial

Subway chokehold victim Jordan Neely suffered from schizophrenia aggravated by a synthetic marijuana habit, a forensic psychiatrist testified Tuesday in the manslaughter case against Daniel Penny.

A decade of mental health issues and chronic use of the illegal drug created a potentially dangerous cocktail, Dr. Alex Bardey told the jury, in which the homeless man posed a danger to himself and others around him.

The testimony came as defense lawyers sought to put the homeless man’s mental health history at the center of the second-degree manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide case against Daniel Penny, a Long Island native.

Bardey, who did not treat Neely but reviewed his medical history, told the court that Neely was admitted more than a dozen times, cycling through at least six different New York City Hospitals between 2015 and 2021 due to mental health issues.

He was homeless for many of his adult years, making money occasionally by performing in the subway system as a Michael Jackson impersonator, family members have said.

Bardey, who reviewed 4,000-5,000 pages of medical records, said Neely had wild swings in moods and behavior.

"He describes paranoid fears that people are trying to hurt him," Bardey said. "At other times grandiosity ... when he thinks people are jealous of him."

Neely’s criminal history, including his 2021 assault conviction for an assault on a 67-year-old woman in a subway station, has been excluded from testimony by the judge.

Penny put Neely in a chokehold on May 1, 2023, around 2:30 p.m. after the subway performer boarded the F train at Second Avenue and started screaming that he was hungry and he didn’t care if he died.

Several passengers who testified at trial described Neely as frightening, though he never touched anyone on the subway train and did not direct his rant at anyone specifically.

Bardey testified that Neely’s case history showed some of the most severe schizophrenia he has seen in his decades-long career.

Several psychiatric records show that Neely believed that rapper Tupac Shakur had used him to "change the world."

"There are multiple times where he thinks he hears the devil's voice," the witness said.

Neely often refused medication, according to Bardey, and would self-medicate with synthetic marijuana, also known as K2.

Bardey reviewed the testimony of passengers, which he said supported his conclusion that Neely suffered from schizophrenia.

"That sort of erratic disorganized behavior would be consistent with acute psychotic behavior," he said.

By contrast, Penny’s mother, Gina Maria Flaim-Penny, took the witness stand earlier in the day, as a character witness describing her son’s upbringing in West Islip.

"We were always a very close family, a lot of holidays and celebrations," she said. "We were always surrounded by family and friends.

When divorce fractured the family, all her children struggled, Flaim-Penny said.

"It was difficult on all my kids, not just Danny; we went to family counseling together," she said. "They stayed very close and they leaned on each other." She added that her son also went to counseling on his own.

Penny thrived on Long Island, playing lacrosse in high school and playing the stand-up bass for a year with the Long Island String Orchestra and two years for the Suffolk County Orchestra.

"The Naval Academy was a dream of his," his mother said. "He thought with lacrosse and his good grades that he would get in, but it’s very selective and he didn’t get in."

Instead, he enlisted in the Marine Corps, she said.

"As a mother I was nervous, I knew he was capable, but Danny has a very soft side to him," Flaim-Penny said.

They kept in touch, she said, writing letters and communicating through apps during his four-year stint.

After the Marine Corps, his mother said that Penny traveled for a while and then decided to enroll in the New York City College of Technology to study architecture.

"I was very thrilled," Flaim-Penny said. "I live in Queens and I work for the New York City education system so I would get to see him a lot."

She said that he used the GI Bill to pay for college, settling in the East Village. He taught swimming at a local gym and worked in a restaurant at night to pay his rent.

Her voice cracked when defense attorney Thomas Kenniff asked if her son was honest, empathetic and compassionate and if she loved him.

"Yes, of course," she said.

When asked what values she instilled in him, Flaim-Penny said "honesty, humility, kindness, treat[ing] others equally as you would like to be treated."

The trial continues Thursday.