Jordan Neely Case: The Trial, Verdict, and Civil Lawsuit

The Jordan Neely case centers on the May 1, 2023 death of a 30-year-old homeless street performer who was placed in a roughly six-minute chokehold by Marine veteran Daniel Penny aboard a Manhattan F train, and the December 2024 verdict in which a jury acquitted Penny of criminally negligent homicide after prosecutors dismissed a deadlocked manslaughter count. A civil wrongful-death lawsuit filed by Neely’s father remains open.

What Happened on the F Train

Neely boarded an uptown F train at Second Avenue on the afternoon of May 1, 2023. Witnesses said he was pacing the car and shouting that he was hungry, thirsty, and “fed up,” and that he did not care if he died or went to jail. Several riders later described his behavior as among the most frightening they had experienced on the subway; one woman testified she shielded her child after Neely made lunging movements. Witnesses also said Neely did not physically attack anyone and did not appear to be armed.¹²

Daniel Penny, then 24, approached Neely from behind and put him in a chokehold. The two fell to the floor. Two other passengers moved in as well, one appearing to help restrain Neely and the other to mediate. The train reached the next station, Broadway-Lafayette, in about 30 seconds, but Penny maintained the hold for nearly another five and a half minutes after it stopped.³ A freelance journalist, Juan Alberto Vazquez, recorded roughly five minutes of the encounter on his cellphone and posted it to Facebook. In the video, a bystander named Larry Goodson can be heard warning Penny that Neely was dying and urging him to release the hold.⁴

Neely stopped moving. Police arrived before 2:30 p.m. and administered first aid, and he was pronounced dead at a hospital. The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner ruled the cause of death to be compression of the neck and classified the manner of death as homicide, a medical determination that indicates the death was caused by another person but does not itself establish criminal intent.¹

Who Jordan Neely Was

Neely grew up in Washington Heights. When he was 14, his mother, Christie Neely, was strangled by her boyfriend, Shawn Southerland, who left her body in a suitcase on the side of the Henry Hudson Parkway. Jordan testified at Southerland’s trial, and in 2012 Southerland was sentenced to 30 years in prison. Jordan spent time in foster care after his mother’s death.⁵⁶⁷

He became well known around Times Square for impersonating Michael Jackson, moonwalk and all. Friends described him as deeply troubled. He struggled with mental illness and drug addiction and was chronically homeless. His aunt Carolyn and her wife took him in at times; when the couple moved upstate in January 2023, Neely declined to go because he did not want to be a burden.⁸⁹

Between 2013 and 2021 he accumulated 42 arrests, mostly for low-level offenses like trespassing and transit fraud, but also including four alleged assaults.¹⁰ In 2021 he was arrested for punching a 67-year-old woman in the head. He was held at Rikers Island and later hospitalized at Bellevue’s forensic-psychiatry unit.¹¹ In February 2023, a judge released him under a plea deal requiring 15 months of intensive inpatient treatment and abstinence from drugs. He left the facility after roughly two weeks and disappeared. Less than three months later he was dead. At the time of the subway incident, he had one outstanding warrant, for the 2021 assault.

Who Daniel Penny Was

Penny grew up on Long Island, graduated from West Islip High School in 2016, and served four years in the Marine Corps as an infantryman. He deployed to the Mediterranean with the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit from December 2018 to July 2019, was promoted to sergeant in the Individual Ready Reserve, and was discharged in June 2021.¹² In May 2023 he was living in New York City, studying architecture, teaching swim lessons, and working at a Brooklyn restaurant.¹³

The Criminal Charges

Penny was arrested 11 days after the incident and initially charged with second-degree manslaughter, which required proof that he recklessly caused Neely’s death and carried a maximum sentence of 15 years. He was released on $100,000 bail.¹⁴¹³ A grand jury indictment, unsealed on June 28, 2023, added a lesser felony count of criminally negligent homicide, which carried a maximum of four years.¹⁵ At his initial appearance, prosecutors noted that while witnesses had described Neely acting aggressively, Penny himself was not specifically being threatened when he intervened.

Inside the Trial

The case was tried in Manhattan Supreme Court before Judge Maxwell Wiley. Prosecutors called more than 30 witnesses and introduced bystander video, police body camera footage, and Penny’s interrogation tape from the Fifth Precinct, in which he called Neely a “crackhead” and said his intent was to “keep him from getting to people.”³¹⁶

The Prosecution

Prosecutors argued that Penny acted recklessly by maintaining the chokehold long after Neely lost consciousness and stopped moving. The city’s chief medical examiner, Dr. Cynthia Harris, testified that Neely died from compression of the neck as a result of the hold. She called the defense’s synthetic-cannabinoid theory “highly improbable,” noting that in 10,000 overdose reviews only seven deaths had been attributed to the drug, and all seven involved patients with abnormal hearts, which Neely did not have.² Nine of eleven witnesses who testified described Neely’s presence on the train as one of the scariest experiences they had ever had on the subway.³

The Defense

Penny’s attorneys, Thomas Kenniff and Steven Raiser, framed their client as someone who put himself on the line for strangers in a confined space where passengers had little room to move. They characterized what Penny did as a “simple civilian restraint” rather than a Marine-trained chokehold, arguing that pressure on Neely’s neck had not been consistent enough to kill him.¹⁷

Their medical expert, forensic pathologist Dr. Satish Chundru, testified that the chokehold did not cause Neely’s death. He attributed it instead to the combined effects of synthetic marijuana, schizophrenia, sickle cell trait, and the physical struggle itself.¹⁸ The defense also emphasized that the account of at least one prosecution witness who had helped restrain Neely had shifted significantly over time.¹⁹

The Verdict

The jury deliberated more than 24 hours across five days. Jurors requested read-backs of the medical examiner’s testimony, re-viewings of the bystander and police footage, and written definitions of “criminal negligence,” “recklessness,” and “reasonable person.” On the fourth day, they told Judge Wiley they could not reach a unanimous verdict on the manslaughter count. After the judge issued an Allen charge urging further deliberation, the deadlock held.²⁰

Prosecutors then asked the judge to dismiss the manslaughter charge, and he did so on December 6, 2024. The defense objected to proceeding on the lesser count alone, arguing it would produce a “coercive or a compromised verdict.” Kenniff moved for a mistrial twice; both motions were denied.²¹ On December 9, 2024, the jury returned a verdict of not guilty on criminally negligent homicide. Penny was acquitted of all charges.¹⁹

The Civil Lawsuit

Days before the criminal verdict, Neely’s father, Andre Zachery, filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against Penny in Manhattan Supreme Court, alleging negligent conduct, assault, and battery.²² Penny’s legal team demanded that the suit be dismissed, arguing that the criminal acquittal should foreclose civil liability. The family’s attorney countered that a civil case runs on a lower burden of proof, a preponderance of the evidence rather than proof beyond a reasonable doubt, so the acquittal does not decide the outcome.²³ As of early 2025, the lawsuit was active, with Penny’s attorneys vowing to “aggressively fight” it and legal observers noting that such cases can take years.²⁴

Reaction and the Debate the Case Ignited

The acquittal split reaction along familiar lines. Andre Zachery told reporters, “I miss my son. My son didn’t have to go through this.” The family’s attorney, Donte Mills, said the jury “let us down” and pledged to pursue justice in civil court. The Reverend Al Sharpton called the killing “unnecessary vigilantism,” and Gwen Carr, the mother of Eric Garner, said the family did not get justice “once again.” Protesters gathered outside the Manhattan courthouse.²⁵

Republican politicians praised the outcome. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis called it “just” and “correct.” Congressman Mike Lawler said Penny should never have been charged. Kyle Rittenhouse publicly congratulated Penny online.²⁵ Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said his office “deeply respected the jury process and their verdict” and denounced threats directed at his prosecutors and their families during the trial.¹⁶

Neely was Black and Penny is white, a fact that hung over the case from the start even though race was not a central element of either side’s trial strategy. The Coalition for the Homeless argued that the acquittal validated “unfounded beliefs that Black men and those who are mentally ill should be feared,” drawing comparisons to the deaths of Emmett Till, Trayvon Martin, and Ahmaud Arbery. The organization noted that Black individuals made up 44 percent of New York City’s sheltered homeless population while constituting 23 percent of the city’s overall population.²⁶

The political divide showed up in the money too. Prominent Republicans including DeSantis and then-Congressman Matt Gaetz endorsed a GiveSendGo fundraiser for Penny’s legal defense that ultimately raised more than $3.2 million from tens of thousands of donors.¹³²⁷ Prominent Democrats attended Neely’s funeral, and Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez publicly called the killing a “murder.”⁷ Neely’s family raised roughly $150,000 for funeral expenses before closing their campaign.

1
CNN. How Jordan Neely’s Death on the Subway Unfolded
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NBC News. Prosecution Rests, Defense Calls First Witnesses in Trial
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The New York Times. Daniel Penny Jordan Neely Chokehold Trial
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Courthouse News Service. Onlookers Warned Daniel Penny in Clips Shown at NYC Manslaughter Trial
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Snopes. Christie Neely Murder
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People. Years Before Subway Killing, Jordan Neely’s Mother Murdered by Boyfriend
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NPR. How Jordan Neely’s Death Fits Into Issues of Health, Homelessness, and Public Safety
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The New Yorker. The System That Failed Jordan Neely
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Time. Jordan Neely Homeless Mental Illness Essay
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Newsweek. Jordan Neely Arrest Record as Outrage Grows Over Subway Death
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The Guardian. Jordan Neely New York Social Services Support Mental Health
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Marine Corps Times. Marine Vet Accused of Putting Man in Deadly Chokehold on Subway
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CBS News. Who Is Daniel Penny
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ABC News. Grand Jury Indicts Daniel Penny in Chokehold Death of Jordan Neely
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BBC. Daniel Penny Acquitted Over Jordan Neely Chokehold Death
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Manhattan District Attorney’s Office. People v. Daniel Penny Verdict
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PBS NewsHour. Was Subway Killing Self-Defense or Excessive Force
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NBC New York. Pathologist Disputes Daniel Penny Chokehold Caused Jordan Neely Subway Death
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PBS NewsHour. Daniel Penny Acquitted in NYC Subway Chokehold Case Over Jordan Neely’s Death
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ABC 7 New York. Daniel Penny Verdict: Questions Jury Asked Before Deciding Not Guilty
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ABC News. Daniel Penny Jury Trial Vote in Jordan Neely Case
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ABC News. Daniel Penny Hit With New Civil Lawsuit by Jordan Neely’s Father
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New York Post. Daniel Penny Demands Dismissal of Jordan Neely’s Dad’s Lawsuit
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ABC 7 New York. What’s After Daniel Penny Acquitted in NYC Subway Chokehold Case
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Fox 5 New York. Daniel Penny Acquitted Not Guilty Jordan Neely Reaction
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Coalition for the Homeless. Daniel Penny Acquittal
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ABC News. How Daniel Penny Crowdfunded Millions for Legal Defense