By Hannah Nightingale – The Postmillennial
A New York City judge has denied a motion brought forth by attorneys for US Marine veteran Daniel Penny to dismiss the charges against him stemming from an incident on a New York City subway in 2023 in which Penny subdued mentally ill homeless man Jordan Neely, leading to the man’s death.
According to NBC 4, The judge ordered Penny to return to court in late March, and his trial is expected to start in the fall.
The 24-year-old has pleaded not guilty to second-degree manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide.
On May 1, 2023, Penny placed Neely in a headlock, with the motion stating that Neely’s behavior on the train had been “insanely threatening.”
Penny spoke out in June about the incident, saying that he was “trying to protect passengers.” Police have said that Neely was not “specifically being threatened by Neely when he intervened” and that Neely was not “threatening anyone in particular.”
“The three main threats that he repeated over and over were ‘I’m going to kill you,’ ‘I’m prepared to go to jail for life,’ and ‘I’m willing to die’,” Penny said.
Penny said it was “a scary situation,” and that he was “scared for himself,” but that considering the women and children on the train, he “couldn’t just sit still.”
“Some people say that I was holding onto Mr. Neely for 15 minutes. This is not true,” Penny said. “The whole interaction was less than five minutes. People say I was trying to choke him to death, which is also not true. I was trying to restrain him.”
Many on the train that day thanked Penny for his actions, with witnesses saying the incident was “absolutely traumatizing” and that they were terrified of Neely, who was making threats against passengers. He had been screaming that he was going to kill a passenger, witnesses say.
This is a breaking story and will be updated.