Manhattan prosecutors doubled down Wednesday on their controversial decision to bring manslaughter charges in the subway strangulation death of Jordan Neely — arguing former Marine Daniel Penny should have known he was going to kill the homeless man given his military training and warnings from concerned onlookers. .
The statement was included in a response to an October filing by defense lawyers seeking to dismiss the case — with prosecutors insisting that Penny, 24, was charged with directly murdering Neely when she hugged the troubled homeless man’s neck for six minutes on a subway train. car land
“The evidence before the grand jury established that Jordan Neely had passed from life to death during the precise moments that he was being held in a chokehold by the defendant,” wrote Joshua Steinglass, the assistant district attorney handling the case.
He argued that there was clear evidence Penny “caused Mr. Neely’s death.”
The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office also rejected several statements by Penny’s defense attorneys in their motion, which attempted to portray Neely, a 30-year-old with a history of mental health issues, as a real threat to other passengers riding. F train on meeting day.
Daniel Penny’s defense team (pictured) has asked the court to dismiss the murder charge against him.REUTERS But the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office refused, instead filing a motion denying the defense’s claim that the case should be dropped. Juan Vazquez
Among them is their opinion that Penny cannot be held responsible for killing Neely because her death was “unpredictable”.
“The notion that death is not a foreseeable consequence of squeezing someone’s neck for six minutes is beyond belief,” Steinglass wrote — adding that the grand jury saw “overwhelming evidence” that Penny had been trained to use dangerous chokeholds by US Marines.
“Defendant’s own trainer testified that although ‘choking’ was taught as a lethal restraint, students were specifically warned during training that choking could be fatal to the person being restrained,” the filing said.
Even if they don’t, the Marine Corps Martial Arts Program handbook clearly states that “[t]the techniques described in this manual can cause serious injury or death,” Steinglas wrote.
“This exercise helps support the notion that the defendant was aware and knowingly disregarded the substantial and unreasonable risk that death would occur as a result of prolonged use of the chokehold,” the filing said.
One witness said they were initially grateful for Penny’s intervention, but thought “the nature and length of the detention was almost excessive,” Steinglass wrote.
“The arrest seemed so unnecessary at that point that an eyewitness can be heard on video urging the defendant to release Mr. Neely and warning the defendant that ‘If you don’t release him now, you’re going to kill him,'” according to court documents.
A witness said they saw a “thick, pink substance” spill from Neely’s mouth as soon as Penny let go, the filing said.
Jordan Neely, 30, is a former Michael Jackson impersonator whose mental health has declined in recent years.AP
The DA’s office also denied the defense’s opinion that Dr. Cynthia Harris — the medical examiner who examined Neely’s body — never gave concrete evidence to the grand jury that the former Michael Jackson impersonator died of suffocation from Penny’s strangulation.
Instead, he “generally opined” about how someone could die from suffocation, which the defense said was just conjecture.
Steinglass calls this “simply untrue.”
Harris told the grand jury that he saw scratches and bruises that to him “were indicative that there was trauma to her (Neely’s) neck,” Steinglass wrote.
He also testified that there was bleeding or bleeding in some of Neely’s neck muscles indicating there was “trauma involving a significant amount of force applied to his neck.”
And he pointed to the moment in the video recording of the strangulation where Neely stopped moving on purpose.
Neely’s death prompted protests in New York. Getty Images Penny has been released on bail ahead of the trial. Paul Martinka
“Dr. Harris explained that the movement after that point is best described as ‘twitching and the kind of agonal movement you see around death,’” Steinglass writes.
Penny, a former infantry squad leader, has been indicted on charges of second-degree murder and criminally negligent homicide for Neely’s death in a case caught on camera, enlightening.
He remains free on $100,000 bail, and faces up to 19 years in prison if convicted.
Penny has said she didn’t intend to kill Neely when she grabbed him from behind on May 1 — but she felt she had to act to protect other passengers because Neely was littering and threatening them.
In their motion to dismiss, defense attorneys painted Neely as a chaotic storm who made her presence known as soon as she stepped onto the subway that evening.
But prosecutors said witnesses varied in their assessment of how dangerous Neely really was, with some testifying that the erratic man was not much different from other loud homeless people they encountered in the Big Apple.
Penny, 24, faces up to 19 years in prison. REUTERS Penny had been trained to use the chokehold and should have known it could kill Neely, prosecutors said. Reuters
“To me, it’s like any other day in New York,” said one witness. “That’s what I used to see.”
Even Penny herself didn’t seem worried at first, according to her interview with police after the fact — she told officers she “wasn’t really paying attention” because Neely was “just a picky eater,” according to the DA’s office filing.
“He was like, ‘If I don’t get this, this, and this, I will, I could go to jail forever,'” Penny told investigators, court documents state. “He’s talking nonsense, you know, but … I don’t know. This guy pushes people in front of trains and stuff like that.”
The Long Island native noticed that Neely was unarmed and hadn’t touched anyone, but said he intervened after Neely scolded him for being a threat, Steinglass wrote.
Police cut Penny off after they interviewed him – but Steinglass said police “do not have any video of the encounter yet.”
Penny was arrested about two weeks later, after footage of the encounter surfaced and sparked outrage.
Jordan Neely’s father, Andre Neely (center) at Penny’s trial in Manhattan court. Paul Martinka
The DA’s office filing also refutes the defense’s claim that Penny’s statements should be suppressed because they were obtained illegally — Steinglass wrote that they were “legally obtained” and he denies all claims to the contrary.
He also said the warrants for Penny’s electronic devices and cloud storage accounts were not particularly broad, as the defense argued.
On Wednesday, Thomas Kenniff, one of Penny’s attorneys, told The Post that the defense team would respond in its own court filing.
“We have received the District Attorney’s objection to our motion to dismiss these allegations, and we look forward to submitting our written response,” Kenniff said in an email.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
