NEW YORK CITY (WABC) — Opening statements began in the trial of Daniel Penny, the white veteran accused of choking a black subway rider to death.

Prosecutors and defense attorneys began their opening statements Friday in the 2023 death case of Jordan Neely.

Prosecutor Dafna Yoran said Penny did not intend to kill Neely, but that Penny’s efforts to neutralize what he saw as a threat “went way too far.” Penny claims she acted in self-defense.

The case rattled fault lines surrounding race, homelessness, perceptions of public safety and bystander responsibility. The jurors were able to hear several witnesses on Friday after the opening statements.

Penny has pleaded not guilty to charges of second-degree manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide in Neely’s death.

Twelve Manhattanites were selected to sit on one the jury of seven women and five men.

The judge estimated the trial could last between four and six weeks.

The prosecution gives the opening statement

On May 1, 2023, Daniel Penny was indifferent to Jordan Neely, disregarded basic precautions and human decency, and needlessly killed him aboard a subway car, putting him in a suffocation that lasted “too long” , a prosecutor said Friday in an opening statement at Penny’s manslaughter and negligent homicide trial.

“Jordan Neely took his last breaths on the dirty floor of an F train,” prosecutor Dafna Yoran told a stunned jury. Penny, she said, believed that “Mr. Neely did not deserve even the bare minimum of humanity.” At the time of his death, Neely was 30 years old, homeless and suffering from mental illness.

“Every day we walk past people like Jordan Neely in our city. As New Yorkers, we train ourselves not to engage, not to make eye contact, to pretend that people like Jordan Neely aren’t there,” Yoran said. “On May 1, Neely asked to be seen.”

Neely entered a moderately crowded subway car at the 2nd Av station and began making threats about hurting people, scaring many of the passengers, Yoran said. “His voice was strong and his words were menacing.”

She pointed to Daniel Penny as she told jurors “This man took it upon himself to bring down Jordan Neely. To neutralize him”.

30 seconds later, the train pulled into the next station, Broadway-Lafayette, and all the passengers left the car except for two men who were helping Penny restrain Neely.

“There was no one left on the train for the defendant to protect,” Yoran said. “He continued to choke Jordan Neely even after Mr. Neely had passed out.”

Penny pleaded not guilty. His lawyers said Neely was “menacingly insane” but Yoran said Penny’s actions were needlessly reckless because he continued the stop for 5 minutes and 53 seconds after the subway car was empty of passengers . “A deal that never changed,” Yoran called it.

“The defendant did not intend to kill him. His original intent was actually commendable,” Yoran said. “But under the law, deadly physical force, such as a chokehold, is permitted only when absolutely necessary and only for as long as absolutely necessary, and here the defendant went way too far.”

The prosecutor told jurors they would see the video of the choking. “You’re going to see Mr. Neely’s life turned upside down before your eyes,” Yoran said, seeming to upset one of the jurors who grimaced and briefly closed his eyes.

The defense gives its opening statement

Daniel Penny stood up to “protect your neighbor” after Jordan Neely’s threats rang out in the closed confines of a subway car in what he described as “unleashed rage,” defense attorney Thomas Kenniff said Friday in an opening statement.

“This is a case about a young man who did for others what we would want someone to do for us,” Kenniff said. “It doesn’t make him a hero, but it doesn’t make him a killer.”

Penny was on the F train, headed to 23rd Street to swim at the gym, when a “psychotic, hot Jordan Neely runs out and announces his presence,” the defense attorney said, “Neely flaps his jacket over head and knocks her to the ground. with such force that even those who cannot see it hear it”.

The defense said things on the train escalated from “concern to fear” because they tried to portray Neely as much scarier than a prosecutor described her in her opening statement.

“Neely sets her sights on a bank of female passengers,” Kenniff said. “Danny sees a mother barricade her son behind a baby carriage in fear of Mr. Neely.”

Penny heard Neely say “I’m going to kill,” and the defense said there was no opportunity for him to calm or stop Neely from the harm he was threatening.

“What Danny does is take action,” Kenniff said. Borrowing from “a bit” of martial arts training he received in the Marine Corps, Penny choked Neely not intending to kill him but, the defense said, to hold him until police arrived.

“His conduct was consistent with someone who values ​​human life and that’s why he tried to protect it so fiercely,” the defense lawyer said.

Kenniff insisted his client “doesn’t want to use more force than necessary,” but Neely “aggressively resisted” while in Penny’s grip. He said Penny believed Neely, who was unarmed, might have a gun while waiting for police.

“The evidence will show that this fight really lasted between 5 and 6 minutes,” but Kenniff said Penny “wasn’t clutching.” Instead, the defense suggested Neely’s death could have been caused by cardiac arrest, a genetic condition or some other cause other than asphyxiation. The defense said the risk of Neely’s death was not something Penny could have perceived or anticipated.

Protesters gather in front of the courthouse

The sounds of a sidewalk protest over the death of Jordan Neely could be heard in the 13th floor courtroom. Protesters were heard calling Penny a “subway strangler.”

The judge said he would instruct jurors to ignore “noise outside the courtroom.”

Penny, dressed in a slate blue suit, walks confidently into the courtroom and sits at the defense table.

Neely’s family members sit with the audience.

“I loved Jordan. And I want justice for Jordan Neely. I want it today. I want justice for everybody and I want justice for Jordan Neely,” his uncle, Christopher Neely, said before entering court.

Before opening statements, Judge Maxwell Wiley granted a defense request to allow some eyewitness statements to the May 1, 2023 choking to police that were captured on body-worn cameras.

One witness, a Ms. Rosario, was caught on body camera 15 minutes after the incident aboard the F train. “I can see most of this statement coming as an excited statement,” Wiley said. He refused to allow part of her statement in which an officer is heard asking if she thought Neely was on drugs.

A Mr Latimer is captured a minute later and Wiley said his statement was “in the immediate vicinity of the event” and could be admitted.

“This person shows emotion, excitement as they describe what happened. It’s a narrative,” Wiley said.

Most of the passengers on board the train who witnessed the incident are expected to testify at the trial

(The Associated Press and ABC News contributed to this report)

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