For roughly six minutes, Jordan Neely was pinned to a subway floor in a chokehold that ended with him lying still. But that's not what killed him, a forensic pathologist testified Thursday in defense of the military-trained commuter charged with killing Neely.
Dr. Satish Chundru disputed a New York City medical examiner's determination that Daniel Penny’s chokehold killed Neely, who was behaving erratically on a subway the two men were riding. Penny's defense says that he acted to protect frightened passengers and was trying only to restrain Neely, not to kill him.
The white Marine veteran's reaction to Neely, who was Black, homeless and mentally ill, has become a flashpoint in national divides over race, urban life and the boundary between self-defense and vigilantism.
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Penny's lawyers have argued throughout the trial that his pressure on Neely's neck wasn't sufficient and consistent enough to be lethal. The attorneys brought Chundru to the witness stand to shed light on their argument.
He told jurors that Neely's medical records and bystander video don't show telltale signs of known types of fatal chokeholds.
Among the discrepancies, he said: the location and extent of bruising on Neely's neck, and the small amount of petechiae — small red spots caused by subsurface bleeding — on his eyelids.
“In your opinion, did Mr. Penny choke Mr. Neely to death?" defense lawyer Steven Raiser asked.
“No,” replied Chundru, who has worked as a medical examiner for county governments in Florida and Texas.
He said Neely died from "the combined effects” of synthetic marijuana, schizophrenia, his struggle and restraint, and a blood condition that can lead to fatal complications during exertion.
“The chokehold did not cause death,” the pathologist said.
Prosecutor Dafna Yoran later sought to show that some aspects of Chundru's testimony, including about petechiae, departed from some medical literature and even his own opinion in other cases. He responded that the comparisons weren't comparable.
His testimony starkly contrasted with the findings of Dr. Cynthia Harris, the city medical examiner who performed Neely's autopsy.
She told jurors earlier in the trial that Neely suffered “an asphyxial death” as a result of the chokehold. She called it “profoundly improbable” that Neely’s death was due to synthetic marijuana use and sickle cell condition, which is related but not equivalent to sickle cell disease.
Within the medical examiner’s office, “the consensus was unanimous” that Neely had died from the chokehold, Harris said, adding: “There are no alternative reasonable explanations.”
A Marine Corps combat instructor who trained Penny testified earlier that the veteran didn't use the chokehold properly when he restrained Neely.
Penny, 26, has pleaded not guilty to manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide. His defense says the Marine veteran and architecture student was defending himself and a car full of subway riders.
Neely, 30, sometimes entertained subway riders as a Michael Jackson impersonator. But he also had a history of psychiatric and drug problems and a criminal record that included assaulting a woman at a subway station.
When they crossed paths in a subway car on May 1, 2023, Neely was begging for money, shouting about being willing to die or go to jail, and making sudden movements, according to witnesses. Penny's lawyers have said Neely lurched toward a woman with a small child and said, “I will kill.”
Penny put his arm around Neely's neck, took him to the floor and held Neely there, with Penny’s legs around him, for close to six minutes, bystander videos show. Neely had stopped moving during roughly the last minute.
Penny's attorneys have said he continued to hold on, while urging onlookers to call police, because Neely had tried at points to break free.
Prosecutors maintain he applied too much force for too long.
