Daniel Penny trial bombshell: Homeless man nonetheless had a pulse after chokehold that prosecutors say killed him

Police detected a pulse on homeless man Jordan Neely after he was put in a chokehold by Marine veteran Daniel Penny, bombshell new bodycam footage reveals. 

The video became public today as Penny’s manslaughter trial began in Manhattan. 

Penny, then 24, is accused of killing Neely by putting him in what prosecutors say was a fatal chokehold. 

The May 1st 2023 incident sparked uproar in America – BLM says it was the racist killing of a mentally ill black man by an overzealous white military faithful. 

Others say Penny is a hero, a modern-day batman who stepped in when Neely made aggressive threats on the subway, including to a toddler boy whose mother shielded him with a stroller. 

During opening statements today, bodycam footage of the moment cops found Neely was shown. 

NYPD officers arrived on the train at Fulton Station at 2.33pm.

Two police officers confirmed that Neely still had a pulse when they arrived. 

‘I got a pulse,’ one said. A second police officer confirmed that he too felt a pulse. 

Neely was unconscious, lying on the subway car floor.  

When asked how Neely ended up there, Penny replied: ‘I put him out.’ 

Despite initially detecting a pulse, they issued Narcan – the drug used to reverse opioid overdoses – to Neely – and started CPR at 2.38pm.

Paramedics from Northwell Health arrived on the train at 2.48pm – 15 minutes after the police.

At 3.13pm – almost 45 minutes after police first arrived – Neely was still on the train, by then surrounded by paramedics. The bodycam released by the court today ends then. 

He was not pronounced dead until he arrived at Lenox Health Hospital in Greenwich Village later that afternoon.

Among witnesses on the first day of evidence was an NYPD Sergeant who testified that none of his team performed mouth-to-mouth on Neely because he was a ‘drug user’. 

‘He seemed to be a drug user.. he was an apparent drug user. He was very dirty. I didn’t want them to get… hepatitis.

‘If he did wake up he would have been vomiting. I didn’t want my officers to do that,’ he said. 

In opening statements, Manhattan prosecutors said: ‘Jordan Neely took his last breaths on the dirty floor of an uptown F train. He was 30 years old, homeless, mentally ill. 

‘He quite literally, went for the jugular,’ Assistant District Attorney Dafna Yoran said. 

The prosecution accepted that Neely had been ‘menacing’ passengers on the train. 

But she said the entire exchange, from the time Neely got on the train, to the time the doors opened at the next station, lasted just 30 seconds. 

It was Penny’s choice to keep Neely restrained for a further five minutes and 53 seconds that formed the basis of the state’s case. 

‘He, quite literally, went immediately for the jugular,’ she said. 

‘We pass people like Jordan Neely every day. As New Yorkers, we train ourselves not to engage, not to make eye contact, to pretend people like Jordan Neely don’t exist.’ 

Yoran told jurors that another man who helped to get Neely to the ground repeatedly told Penny that he could let go because he had a strong grip of his arms. 

‘The defendant has specialized training in chokeholds. A person passes out and you have to immediately let go… a green belt Marine is taught, and clearly knows. 

‘He pushed Mr Neely to the point of no return, certain to die. When he did let go, he left Neely on the floor and didn’t look back. He picked up his hat, dusted himself off, and stood over his body.’ 

Yoran said Penny’s defense that he was acting to protect other, vulnerable passengers on the train can’t be considered beyond the point that all the passengers had fled the train. 

‘[The level of force] may have been reasonable initially, [Neely’s behavior] would justify an initial use of force. But at the point that Penny killed Mr Neely, there was no one to protect. At that point there was no excuse or justification for the deadly use of physical force.’ 

While the state intends to argue that Penny never let up the initial pressure he placed on Neely’s neck, the defense insists he made several attempts to loosen his grip, and that only had a light hold on Neely by the time he stopped fighting back. 

‘This struggle did last five to six minutes. But Danny was not, and could not, have been squeezing his neck. We know that because if he was, Neely would have passed out in the first minute,’ Kenniff said. 

Opening statements began on Friday after a grueling two-week process of selecting the 12-person jury. 

An initial search was conducted of Neely’s body and jacket, which was nearby. 

No weapons were found, and the only possession he had at the time was a muffin stuffed into his jacket pocket. 

Police initially felt a faint pulse, and a shot of Narcan was administered. 

Once the pulse disappeared, officers began performing CPR, and then issued another shot of Narcan. 

At no point did Neely regain consciousness. 

Kenniff argued that Penny had only intended to intervene until police could come and take over. 

‘Something that took way longer than expected,’ he said. 

From the time police received the dispatch call, it took seven minutes for first responders to arrive. 

It was then another 10 minutes before emergency services arrived with a defibrillator and more resources. 

‘Danny was desperately waiting for police to show up and help him the way he had helped other passengers on this train,’ Kenniff said. 

The trial is expected to last up to six weeks, and will call upon medical experts, first responders, and other passengers who were on the train that day.