“I just put him out” — that’s what ex-Marine Daniel Penny told cops on a Manhattan subway platform moments after he put homeless man Jordan Neely in a fatal chokehold, video played in court Thursday reveals.
Penny’s statement, made to officers on the Broadway-Lafayette platform last May, is among several pieces of evidence that his lawyers are fighting to keep out of his manslaughter trial slated for later this month.
Wearing a gray suit and purple tie, Penny calmly watched on as prosecutors played video from an arriving cop’s bodycam, plus footage of his interrogation later that night — where he insisted that he did not mean to hurt Neely and was merely protecting his fellow straphangers during the train car altercation.
“I wasn’t trying to injure him,” Penny told detectives at Chinatown’s 5th Precinct, the interrogation video shows. “I was just trying to keep him from hurting anyone else. He was threatening people.”
Penny added, “I’m not trying to kill the guy. I’m just trying to deescalate the situation.”
The 25-year-old veteran is charged with second-degree manslaughter, with Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office saying that he “recklessly” caused Neely’s death by choking him for six minutes — well past the point where Neely had stopped “purposeful movement.”
Penny has argued that his actions were justified. His lawyers have stressed accounts from some witnesses that Neely’s wild rant in the subway car included threats like, “someone is going to die today!”
Some passengers on the F train during the episode described Neely’s words as “insanely threatening” — and said they hid and prayed until Penny stepped in — while others say they did not felt at risk, court papers show.
“For me, it was like another day typically in New York,” one witness told the grand jury.
Penny’s lawyer, Thomas Kenniff, wants the bodycam footage scrubbed from the trial because the candid statements came before he has told of his rights against incriminating himself.
In the recording — which was played during the daylong Manhattan Supreme Court hearing but not released publicly — Penny told police that Neely had been threatening those on the train car, and then added, “I just put him out.”
His attorney also wants jurors to be blocked from seeing video of Penny’s questioning because it stemmed from what he called an “illegal arrest,” court papers show.
The interrogation begins with Penny having a friendly chat with 5th Precinct Det. Michael Medina, also an ex-Marine, with the two men trading stories about their time in service, the video shows.
Penny then gives his account, going so far as to act the situation out by putting Medina in a mock chokehold to demonstrate what he did to Neely.
“I’m not an agitator trying to attack people,” Penny says in the video. “I just felt that this guy was going to kill people.”
The interrogation ends abruptly after Penny, appearing to realize that he may be in legal trouble, asks if he is being detained, and then asks to speak to a lawyer.
Police ended up cutting Penny loose that night — but he was arrested about two weeks later, after bystander footage of the encounter surfaced online and drew outrage.
Neely was unarmed during the encounter and had a long history of mental health episodes and run-ins with police before his death.
Judge Maxwell Wiley ordered that the bodycam and interrogation footage be sealed off from the public while he decides whether it will be played at the trial, which expected to begin with jury selection on Oct. 21.
Among the observers of Thursday’s pre-hearing was Jordan Neely’s uncle, Christopher Neely, who popped into the room after the lunch break after an appearance inside a nearby courtroom in his pending pickpocketing case.
The judge said he planned to rule on whether the videos would be shown at trial sometime next week.
Penny faces up to 19 years in prison if convicted in the case.
