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The city medical examiner, who made her ruling before Neely’s toxicology report came back, testified that she was so confident after watching video of the encounter that she’d stand by her decision even if it later turned out that Neely had enough drugs in his body “to put down an elephant.”
Jurors asked for a readback of that specific portion of Harris’ testimony during deliberations.
Trial evidence revealed that Neely had the synthetic marijuana drug K2 in his system at the time of the confrontation. Jurors also heard that he was diagnosed with schizophrenia, telling doctors in 2021 that he’d heard the “devil’s voice.”
Penny’s mother, sister, friends and fellow Marines took the stand to vouch for his character.
The defense’s medical expert, forensic pathologist Dr. Satish Chundru, claimed that Neely died not from Penny’s chokehold, but by “the combined effects of sickle cell crisis, the schizophrenia, the struggle and restraint, and the synthetic marijuana.”
Penny declined to take the stand. But jurors heard him tell arriving cops on the train platform, “I just put him out,” before making a choking gesture with his arms.
Hours later, at Chinatown’s 5th Precinct, a relaxed Penny insisted during an interrogation that he was merely trying to “de-escalate the situation” and that he didn’t mean to hurt Neely.
“I’m not trying to kill the guy,” the Marine veteran told two detectives, as prosecutors watched him through a one-sided mirror. “I’m just trying to keep him from hurting anybody else.”
In an apparent reference to the mentally ill Neely, Penny added during his questioning that “all these people are pushing people in front of the train and stuff.”
Neely’s death, and Penny’s arrest 11 days later, sparked a national political firestorm about whether Penny’s actions were justified.
