Jordan Neely died from the “combined effects” of a number of a factors, not a chokehold, a forensic pathologist hired by Daniel Penny’s attorneys testified Thursday.
Penny is charged with manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide in the chokehold death of Neely on a New York City subway train in May 2023.
Dr. Satish Chundru took the stand as the second expert witness for the defense team, which is trying to refute testimony from a New York City medical examiner who ruled that Neely died from compression to his neck as a result of a chokehold.
Chundru, a forensic pathologist and consultant who said he has worked as a medical examiner for counties in Florida and Texas, said he has conducted more than 9,000 autopsies. He said the defense retained him a little over two weeks after Neely’s killing.
Neely, 30, who had a history of mental illness, shouted, threw his jacket to the ground and made distressing comments about being hungry and thirsty and wanting to return to jail when he boarded an uptown F train on May 1, 2023. Penny, 26, who was a passenger on the train, put Neely in a chokehold and took him to the ground. His attorneys have said that he did not intend to kill Neely and that he acted to protect the people around him.
Prosecutors have said Penny held Neely in the chokehold for six minutes, letting him go only after he had become unconscious and gone limp. Two other people helped him restrain Neely for some of that time. A bystander video of Penny choking Neely on the floor of the subway car, which was widely shared online, divided people in New York and beyond. Some viewed his actions as praiseworthy, while others condemned them and labeled him a vigilante.
Chundru’s testimony contradicted that of Dr. Cynthia Harris, the medical examiner who performed the autopsy on Neely and ruled that he died of the chokehold. Chundru said he did not believe that Neely died of a chokehold or that Penny had applied consistent and sufficient pressure to render him unconscious.
Chundru said he believed Neely died from “the combined effects of sickle cell crisis, the schizophrenia, the struggle and restraint and the synthetic marijuana” that was in his system. He said he had reviewed Neely’s autopsy report, two toxicology reports, genetic studies, photographs from the autopsy, “a couple of videos of the incident,” psychiatric records, witness statements and transcripts of police body camera video, among other things.
Neely’s father, Andre Zachary, hung his head as parts of the bystander video were shown Thursday, and he left the courtroom multiple times during Chundru’s testimony, including after he said Neely had not died of a chokehold.
Chundru criticized Harris, who told jurors Neely suffered “an asphyxial death,” for issuing a ruling about his cause of death before toxicology and other tests were complete.
Harris, a prosecution witness, testified over three days and said she based her decision on the autopsy findings coupled with the video and the investigative information about it, as well as with knowledge of Neely’s use of synthetic cannabinoids. She was in the courtroom Thursday during Chundru’s testimony.
One of Penny’s attorneys, Steven Raiser, spent hours trying to poke holes in her findings and testimony. He questioned how she came to her conclusion without full toxicology results.
“No toxicological result imaginable was going to change my opinion,” she said.
Harris walked jurors through Penny’s final moments, explaining down to the minute when he made his last purposeful movement. She also testified that within the medical examiner’s office, the “consensus was unanimous” about Neely’s cause of death.
Cross-examining Chundru, Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Dafna Yoran appeared to raise questions about the quality of his work, suggesting through a series of questions that he performed more autopsies a year than is recommended by the National Association of Medical Examiners, of which he is a member. Yoran will continue her cross-examination Friday.
The defense this week called six people to testify as character witnesses, including Penny’s sister and mother. His sister, Jacqueline Penny, 27, an accountant, testified about their suburban upbringing in West Islip on Long Island, a small town that she described as neighborly and beachy.
She said Penny had always been “patriotic,” so she was not too surprised when he enlisted in the Marines after he graduated from high school because other men in their family had also served in the military.
Their mother, Gina Flaim-Penny, a teacher’s assistant who lives in Queens, testified that she taught Penny to “treat others equally as you would like to be treated” and that she believed he did so. She said that when she and Penny’s father divorced, it was difficult on all four of her children but that they stayed close and leaned on one another. She said that they went to family counseling and that her children also went to a counselor. She testified that she knew her son to be an empathetic, compassionate and peaceful person.
Along with Penny’s sister and mother, four other character witnesses were called by the defense to testify to Penny’s empathy, honesty and integrity. Their testimony followed evidence submitted by prosecutors that suggested Penny had lied during an interview with police.
Hours after Neely was killed, according to a video shown to jurors, Penny told two detectives in an interview at a precinct that he did not put pressure on Neely’s neck and that he had released his chokehold as soon as he received confirmation from the two men who helped him restrain Neely that they were holding Neely. But last week, one of those men, Eric Gonzalez, testified that Penny continued his chokehold after Gonzalez told him, “I will grab his hands so you can let go.”
