Jury deliberates fate of Daniel Penny in subway chokehold death trial for 3rd day
Jury deliberations will resume Friday at 10 a.m.
NEW YORK (WABC) -- For a third straight day, a Manhattan jury deliberated the fate of Daniel Penny, a Marine veteran charged in the chokehold death of Jordan Neely.
In their first note of the day on Thursday, the jury requested to again see two bystander videos capturing the moments when Penny placed Neely in a chokehold on the New York City subway car last year.
The jury requested one of the two bystander videos Wednesday. Judge Maxwell Wiley is allowing the jury to access a laptop with the videos so they can watch the requested videos as many times as they'd like.
In their second note of the day, the jury requested the definitions of criminal negligence and recklessness.
"We the jury request that Judge Wiley read the definition of recklessness and negligence. Please read it more than once," the note read. "Could the jury have the definitions in writing?"
The jury is considering two counts - second degree manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide. To convict Penny of manslaughter, the jury must be convinced Penny acted recklessly and grossly deviated from how a reasonable person would behave knowing the risk his conduct posed.
Across three days, the jury has deliberated for roughly 18 hours.
The jury began their morning by hearing more testimony read back from the cross-examination of the city medical examiner who concluded Penny's chokehold killed Neely.
During an intense cross examination, Dr. Cynthia Harris pushed back against the defense suggestion that the public sentiment surrounding the trial influenced her conclusion that "there are no alternative reasonable explanations" for Neely's death other than Penny's chokehold.
"No toxicological result imaginable was going to change my opinion," she testified.
In a separate development, Neely's father filed a civil lawsuit against Penny on Wednesday for negligent contact, assault and battery that led to Neely's death.
"The aforesaid incident, injuries, and death were caused by reason of defendant Daniel Penny's negligence," the lawsuit alleged.
Neely's father, Andre Zachery requested damages "in such sum as a jury may find reasonable, fair, and just."
Zachery was present in court Thursday morning, seated alone in the courtroom gallery a few rows back from the jury box.
"Our legal team remains focused on seeing Mr. Penny's criminal case through to acquittal. We have yet to be served with any civil action, but will respond accordingly in due course," Penny's lawyers Steve Raiser and Thomas Kenniff said in a statement about the lawsuit.
The jury completed their deliberations for the day on Thursday evening, and will return Friday morning at 10 a.m.
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