NEW YORK – Dr. Satish Chundru, a Texas forensic pathologist working on Daniel Penny’s defense as he fights charges in the subway choking death of Jordan Neely, has returned to the witness stand Friday for the second barbecue day.

Penny, a 26-year-old Navy veteran and architecture student, caught Neely, 30, in the middle of a schizophrenic, drug-fueled outburst on a subway car that witnesses said that it included death threats and made them fear for their lives. . Although Neely still had a pulse when Penny let her go, she later died.

Unlike the official autopsy report made by dr. Cynthia Harris of the New York Medical Examiner’s Office, Chundru testified that she does not believe suffocation caused Neely’s death.

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Dr. Satish Chundru leaves the courtroom during a break in the manslaughter trial of Daniel Penny of New York in Manhattan Supreme Court in New York, Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024. (Rashid Umar Abbasi for Fox News Digital)

During a grueling cross-examination, Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Dafna Yoran told Dr. Chundru linked the sickle cell trait to death in other cases, prompting repeated objections from the defense.

At one point, Judge Maxwell Wiley cut her off and said “we’re not doing that.” But the questioning continued through several objections before the court went into recess.

Before jurors returned, the defense argued that Yoran had improperly brought up the term “homicide,” a misstep. this happened earlier and in the process.

Wiley said he doesn’t want to hit back and forth. When the jury returned, he told them that “homicide” meant something different to a coroner than it did to a lawyer or a jury, and asked them not to weigh the witness’s use of the word when weighing the facts of the case.

Daniel Penny walks into the lobby of Manhattan Supreme Court, Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2024. Penny, a Navy veteran, is charged with second-degree manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide in the 2023 death of Jordan Neely on a subway train from New York. (Rashid Umar Abbasi for Fox News Digital)

It was the second time the word “homicide” appeared in controversy and prompted the defense to raise an objection. Earlier this week, Wiley ordered the removal of the first comment, when Dr. Harris noted that “all homicide reports” were reviewed by another doctor from the city medical examiner’s office.

Not all homicides are criminal, and the defense argued that the prosecution’s repeated adoption of the word could confuse the jury.

The defense asked the court to note for the record that they had several conversations, and the DA’s office agreed that bringing in testimony from medical examiners regarding the death as a “homicide” would mislead the jury.

The first time, it came from Dr. Harris. Second, the defense said Yoran said the word as part of her cross-examination. She denied. The judge said he would review the transcript later and issue additional jury instructions if necessary.

Jordan Neely is pictured before going to see the Michael Jackson movie ‘This is It’ outside the Regal Cinemas on 8th Avenue and 42nd Street in Times Square in New York City in 2009. (Andrew Savulich/New York Daily News/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)

While Penny’s team has argued that his actions were justified, that is not their only line of defense, according to Louis Gelormino, a New York defense attorney who is following the case closely.

“One of the other defenses is, ‘Well, I didn’t kill him. My actions were not the cause of death,” he told Fox News Digital Friday. “So, yes, it makes no difference if it was justified. But if his actions weren’t justifiable, the jury might as well say, “Hey, (his) actions didn’t kill him. He died because of the other. things happen in his body. And that’s why it’s relevant.”

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

Rather, he blamed “the combined effects of sickle cell crisis, schizophrenia, struggle and restraint, and synthetic marijuana.”

Dr. Cynthia Harris arrives for the trial of Daniel Penny at the Manhattan Criminal Courthouse in New York on Friday, Nov. 15, 2024. Penny, a Marine veteran, is charged with second-degree manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide in the death of 2023. Jordan Neely on a New York City subway train. (Adam Gray for Fox News Digital)

Dr. Michael Baden, a former New York medical examiner and chief medical examiner, disagreed with Chundru’s testimony.

“Dr. Chundru’s testimony may have been very interesting, but it was wrong,” he told Fox News Digital. “He described what can happen in sickle cell, not what happens in sickle cell trait, which Neely had. Eight percent of black people in this country have sickle cell trait, which is a benign medical condition that rarely causes symptoms, let alone death. .”

At the autopsy, Harris found a significant “sickle” on Neely’s organs, he testified, and lawyers for both sides demanded an explanation. She said the condition did not contribute to Neely’s death and blamed only asphyxiation from suffocation.

“Red blood cells with sickle trait sickle after death, when the body’s oxygen supply disappears, and it can be seen at autopsy — just as in Neely’s case or anyone with sickle trait who dies of any disease,” a Baden said. “It’s a post-mortem artifact, like rigor mortis. In addition, death by scythe requires days of scything; it can’t happen in seconds like it did with Neely.”

Screenshot from a bystander’s video showing Jordan Neely being held up in a New York subway traffic jam. (Luces de Nueva York/Juan Alberto Vazquez via Storyful)

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However, he said, even if suffocation caused Neely’s death, it is not up to the medical examiner to decide whether it was a crime.

“Individual circumstances are important as to whether the death could (or) should have been avoided and whether the death should be prosecuted, which is entirely up to the prosecutor,” he said.

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Penny faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted of the primary charge of involuntary manslaughter. He also faces a charge of criminally negligent homicide.

It was not immediately clear whether he would take the stand in his own defense, though some experts suggested he was he probably will because it is a case of self-defense.