Daniel Penny's chokehold was sole cause of Jordan Neely's death, medical examiner testifies
Jordan Neeley’s death was a direct result of the chokehold Daniel Penny held him in, a medical examiner testified Friday, rebutting assertions from the defense team that the former Marine did not apply enough pressure to kill the subway rider and that his death could have had some other cause.
Jordan Neeley’s death was a direct result of the chokehold Daniel Penny held him in, a medical examiner testified Friday, rebutting assertions from the defense team that the former Marine did not apply enough pressure to kill the subway rider and that his death could have had some other cause.
“It’s my medical opinion that there are no alternative reasonable explanations for Mr. Neely’s death,” the medical examiner, Dr. Cynthia Harris, told jurors.
Harris said Neely died from “compression of neck (chokehold)” days after his killing. More than a month later, a grand jury indicted Penny on a manslaughter charge.
Attorneys for Penny, who is also charged with criminally negligent homicide, have refuted the medical examiner’s findings. In his opening statement, one of the attorneys, Thomas Kenniff, said Penny had restrained Neely with a “variation of a nonlethal chokehold” borrowed from martial arts training he had been taught in the Marine Corp.
The trial is in its fourth week and is expected to last through Thanksgiving.
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