NEW YORK – The Marine veteran at the trial into the subway suffocation death of Jordan Neely called a forensic pathologist to the witness stand Thursday and reached a conclusion dramatically different from that of the New York City Medical Examiner’s Office.

“Suffocation did not cause death,” testified Dr. Satish Chundru.

Daniel Penny, 26, faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted of the main charge he faces, manslaughter, in the death of 30-year-old Neely.

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In May 2023, he was heading to the gym after class at a college in New York when Neely, a homeless man with schizophrenia and a drug habitentered a subway car and shouted death threats.

Chundru, a former Miami-area medical examiner who now runs a private practice in Texas that performs autopsies in a half-dozen counties, said he does not believe an asphyxiation of air caused Neely’s unconsciousness and therefore , did not cause his death.

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Chundru said he found the cause of death to be “the combined effects of sickle cell crisis, schizophrenia, struggle and restraint, and synthetic marijuana.”

Someone schizophrenic, high on K2 and involved in a fight can die with no suffocation involved at all, he said. Similarly, he said, if there were no health problems and suffocation was the only factor, Neely would not have died.

“In your opinion, did Mr. Penny choke Mr. Neely to death in 2023?” defense attorney Steven Raiser asked.

“No,” replied Dr. Chundru, before the defense concluded its cross-examination.

On cross-examination, Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Dafna Yoran grilled him about some of his previous cases, asking about an incident in which he ruled on a choke hold — and a defense expert disputed his conclusions, pointing out that in the system the victim had cocaine. It happened in 2012 and he said he doesn’t remember well.

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She convinced Dr. Chundru to admit that the video shows Penny’s arm in a “blood choke” position and that the brushing of Neely’s body matched.

However, he said: “You can be choked, walk away with these types of injuries and survive.”

He compared Neely’s death to another that Dr. Chundru and said that the two are not comparable.

“With the video, it gives us evidence that there was a suffocation, but it didn’t cause (Neely’s) death,” he testified.

The judge dismissed jurors for the day shortly before 5 p.m

The trial resumes on Friday at 10 a.m., and Dr. Chundru is expected to return to the witness stand for more testimony.

With the defense expert on the stand, dr. Cynthia Harris, who conducted the city’s autopsy, watched from the audience. She testified in the trial three days earlier.

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Harris found that it was the suffocation that killed Neely, not the synthetic drugs in his system, the genetic sickle cell disorder, or the cardiac arrest.

“This is a very complicated case,” Chundru testified. “We have schizophrenia involved, sickle cell trait involved, a suffocation.”

In addition, Neely had K2, a form of synthetic marijuana that experts testified was more similar to cocaine, in his toxicology report.

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Dr. Chundru said death by asphyxiation comes in two phases. In the first, the individual loses consciousness. In the second, sustained pressure leads to death.

“What is also important is that unconsciousness always follows death in a suffocation,” he said.

However, rendering someone unconscious does not always mean they will die, he said. When they are released, they usually wake up, he said.

“In a sickle cell crisis, the death is a lack of oxygen, so the same (in) a death by asphyxiation,” he said.

Source of the original article: Defense Daniel Penny calls coroner to stand: ‘Suffocation did not cause death’