Former Marine Daniel Penny is “confident” he’ll beat the manslaughter charges he faces for killing homeless man Jordan Neely on a New York City subway last May, his attorney told The Post Wednesday — as a Manhattan judge set the trial for Oct. 8.
The proceedings will likely last about four weeks — although they could run as long as six, Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Maxwell Wiley said during the hearing.
Penny — who wore a charcoal suit, white shirt and maroon tie — did not offer a comment as he left the courtroom alongside his attorneys.
Defense lawyer Thomas Kenniff said afterward that he thinks it’s “unfortunate this case was brought at all,” but he’s still hoping the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office sees the “inequity in continuing this prosecution.”
Still, the defense team will be “fully prepared to defend our client,” Kenniff said. And he has no doubt Penny will be acquitted.
The former infantry squad leader is similarly assured, the lawyer said.
“Is he happy to be the subject or participant in his own criminal trial? Of course not,” Kenniff said of Penny. “Having said that, he’s handling himself with dignity. He’s as confident as his attorneys are that ultimately, if this case has to go to trial, he will be fully exonerated.”
The lawyer representing the Neely family said outside court his clients are “still suffering” and “still in pain.”
“Justice has not been served yet, but we’re expecting, we’re holding onto the belief that justice will be done in this case,” attorney Lennon Edwards said, adding that the family hopes the public gets a “view of what Daniel Penny really was that day.”
“He was the dangerous one,” the lawyer added. “On that day, Daniel Penny was judge, jury and executioner. And we’re expecting that when this trial starts, he will be facing a judge, a jury and a sentence.”
Kenniff took umbrage at those statements, charging, “It was Jordan Neely that threatened to take life” that day on the train.
“It was Jordan Neely who told a mother and her young child who were cowering behind a stroller that he was ready to go to prison for the rest of his life if he didn’t get to take what he wanted,” he told The Post.
“If anybody went in there with the intent to play jury, judge, and executioner, it sure as hell wasn’t my client.”
Penny, a former infantry squad leader, was indicted on charges of second-degree manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide for the caught-on-camera, lightning-rod May 2023 confrontation that left Neely dead on the floor of a Manhattan F train.
Penny’s attorneys had tried to get the case dismissed in October, claiming there were issues with the prosecutors’ instructions to the grand jury and that the city medical examiner never conclusively established that Penny’s actions killed the homeless man during the struggle.
![Jordan Neely's [pictured] attorneys say they will show that Penny was the dangerous one on the train that day.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/2023-shows-jordan-neely-daniel-12704754.jpg?w=1024)
But Wiley batted that away, ruling the examiner’s testimony and Neely’s death certificate were more than enough to “establish that [the] defendant’s actions caused the death of Neely.”
Thomas Kenniff, one of Penny’s attorneys, said the defense team disagreed with the court’s decision but remained confident a jury would “deliver a just verdict.”
Penny — who is free on $100,000 bail — faces up to 19 years behind bars if convicted of killing Neely, who witnesses say launched into an explosive tirade during a train ride on May 1, 2023.
A former Michael Jackson impersonator, Neely had a lengthy history of mental illness and was allegedly threatening other straphangers before Penny stepped behind him and sunk the chokehold that eventually killed him, according to the medical examiner.
Penny has said he didn’t mean to do it. But he thought he needed to step in and shield his fellow subway riders from Neely, who witnesses say was tossing trash and screaming that he was willing to “kill a motherf—er” and go to jail.
“The rhetoric from Mr. Neely was very frightening, it was very harsh,” a witness previously told The Post.
Edwards, the family’s attorney, said Wednesday that Neely was riding the train unarmed and asking for food that day.
“He had no gun, he had no knife, he was hungry,” Edwards said. “In his desperation, he was emotional. But distress does not mean dangerous.”
“So we’re asking you to keep an open mind — and remember the pain that this family is suffering.”
Penny’s next court date is scheduled for Sept. 17, which will be a hearing to determine if videotaped statements he made to cops the night of Neely’s death can be used as evidence.
![Jordan Neely's [pictured] attorneys say they will show that Penny was the dangerous one on the train that day.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/03/2023-shows-jordan-neely-daniel-12704754.jpg?quality=75&strip=all&w=1024)