NEW YORK CITY — Prosecutors and defense attorneys agree on one thing about Navy veteran Daniel Penny’s encounter last year with a distraught, angry and threatening man on the New York subway: Penny had no intention of killing him.

But a prosecutor told jurors Friday that Penny “went too far” in trying to neutralize someone she saw as a threat and not a person, while a defense attorney said Penny showed “courage” and put the well-being of others first. other than his own when he placed Jordan Neely in a chokehold that ended with Neely limp on the ground.

Both sides gave opening statements Friday in the involuntary manslaughter trial surrounding Neely’s death.

On the first day of the trial, jurors also watched the yet-to-be-released body camera video of Penny’s initial encounter with police, four and a half minutes after releasing Neely.

The case has shaken fault lines around race, homelessness, perceptions of public safety and bystander responsibility.

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

Twelve Manhattan residents have been selected to sit in a jury composed of seven women and five men.

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

The prosecution gives its opening statement

On May 1, 2023, Daniel Penny showed indifference toward Jordan Neely, ignored basic precautions and human decency and unnecessarily killed him aboard a subway car with a chokehold that lasted “too long,” a prosecutor said Friday in an opening statement in Penny’s manslaughter and negligent homicide trial.

“Jordan Neely breathed his last on the dirty floor of an uptown F train,” prosecutor Dafna Yoran told a rapt jury. Penny, he 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 mentally ill.

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

Neely entered a moderately packed subway car at the 2nd Av stop and began threatening to hurt people, scaring many of the passengers, Yoran said. “His voice was loud and his words threatening.”

He pointed to Daniel Penny as he told the jury: “This man took it upon himself to take down Jordan Neely. Neutralize him.”

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

“There was no one left on the train that the defendant could protect,” Yoran said. “He continued to strangle Jordan Neely even after Mr. Neely lost consciousness.”

Penny has pleaded not guilty. His attorneys have said Neely was “incredibly threatening,” but Yoran said Penny’s actions were unnecessarily reckless because she continued to choke him for 5 minutes and 53 seconds after the subway car became empty of passengers. “An understanding that never changed,” Yoran called it.

“The defendant had no intention of killing him. His initial intention was even laudable,” Yoran said. “But under the law, deadly physical force, such as strangulation, is permitted only when absolutely necessary and for as long as absolutely necessary, and here the defendant went too far.”

The prosecutor told jurors they would watch the video of the strangulation. “You will see Mr. Neely’s life taken before your very eyes,” Yoran said, seeming to irritate one of the jurors, who grimaced and briefly closed his eyes.

Defense gives opening statement

Daniel Penny stood up to “protect your neighbor” after Jordan Neely’s threats echoed through the closed confines of a subway car, which he spoke with “unhinged anger,” defense attorney Thomas Kenniff said during a keynote speech on Friday.

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

Penny was on the F train headed to 23rd Street to swim at the gym when “Jordan Neely, furious and psychotic, bursts in and announces his presence,” the defense attorney said. “Neely pulls his jacket over her head and slams it against her. the ground.” “with such force that even those who do not see it hear it.”

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

“Neely sets his sights on a passenger bench,” Kenniff said. “Danny sees a mother barricading her son behind a baby stroller out of fear of Mr. Neely.”

Penny heard Neely say “I’ll kill” and the defense said they had no chance to de-escalate or stop Neely from the harm he was threatening.

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

“His behavior was consistent with that of someone who values ​​human life and that is why he tried to protect it with such fervor,” the defense attorney said.

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

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

Body camera footage shown for the first time

The first witness, a New York City police officer, was among those who unsuccessfully attempted to revive Neely. Officer Teodoro Tejada testified that Neely had no pulse.

The jury saw footage from the officer’s body camera that captured attempts to save Neely and showed his lifeless body on the subway floor. When they searched for weapons, the only thing officers found in Neely’s pockets was a bagel. Nothing else was found in the jacket, Tejada confirmed.

Penny is heard saying, “I pulled it out,” when the officer asked what happened.

For prosecutors, the images, which have not been seen publicly until now, are proof that Penny ignored Neely’s basic humanity.

Jurors closely studied video showing officers frantically trying to revive Neely. At one point, a juror put his hand over his mouth and watched the camera bounce as Tejada joined in on chest compressions. Neely’s body is seen lying on the subway floor, with sneakers, jeans, and a dirty white T-shirt still on.

On cross-examination, Kenniff asked if the officer responded to any calls “from a white male causing any trouble,” which Tejada confirmed he did not. The defense also used Tejada’s testimony to suggest to the jury that Penny did not behave like a criminal by fleeing the scene.

“Did he seem cooperative?” the lawyer asked.

“Yes,” the officer responded.

“You didn’t look like you had anything to hide?” -Kenniff asked.

“No,” Tejada said.

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 order jurors to ignore “the noise outside the courthouse.”

Penny, dressed in a slate blue suit, walked confidently into the courtroom and took a seat at the defense table.

Members of Neely’s family are seated with spectators.

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

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

One witness, Ms. Rosario, was captured on body camera 15 minutes after the incident aboard the F train. “I can see most of that statement as an excited expression,” Wiley said. He refused to allow a portion of his statement in which an officer is heard asking him if he thought Neely was high.

A Mr. Latimer is captured a minute later and Wiley said his statement is “within the immediacy of the event” and could be admitted.

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

Most of the passengers who were aboard the train and who witnessed the incident are expected to testify at trial.

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