Daniel Penny doesn’t deserve a plea deal after being charged with manslaughter in Jordan Neely’s subway chokehold death, Neely’s uncle said Sunday — as he called for the prosecution of the two men seen helping the ex-Marine hold his nephew down.
Christopher Neely made the comments the day after Penny, 24, in an exclusive interview, said that Jordan Neely’s death had nothing to do with race, while noting he did what he thought was right and would act the same way if he was put in a similar situation again.
“He needs to be prosecuted or he will do it again,” Christopher told The Post on Sunday. “It’s a smack in the face for Jordan’s family and the people of New York.”
Christopher said Penny shouldn’t be offered a plea deal by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, which has charged him with second-degree manslaughter for the caught-on-camera May 1 confrontation.
“I want this to go to trial,” Christopher said. “He has too much confidence in himself and has to be taught what he did was wrong.”
In his first public comments since the fatal encounter, Penny indicated what transpired wasn’t like “anything I’d experienced before.”
“You know, I live an authentic and genuine life,” Penny told The Post when asked if he would take action again if he were in a similar situation. “And I would — if there was a threat and danger in the present …”
Asked what he would say to the family of Jordan Neely, he replied, “I’m deeply saddened by the loss of life.”
“It’s tragic what happened to him. Hopefully, we can change the system that’s so desperately failed us,” he said.
The comments angered Christopher Neely, who said that not only is Penny refusing to apologize for the killing, but he admitted that he’d do it all over.
“He thinks what he did was a good deed — that is monstrous,” Christopher said. “How can you say ‘everything I did was right’ when he killed an unarmed man that weighed 100 pounds, if that?”
The caught-on-video confrontation exploded after Jordan Neely, a 30-year-old homeless man with a lengthy history of mental illness and numerous arrests and police run-ins, allegedly began yelling and throwing trash at other straphangers on an F train in Manhattan.
Penny seized Neely around the neck and dropped to the floor.
Two other men tried to further restrain Neely, who was thrashing about as Penny held him in the chokehold, according to witnesses and bystander video.
The city medical examiner called Neely’s death a homicide, finding he died of “compression of neck (chokehold),” the office said.
Penny’s attorneys have said he was trying to protect himself and other subway riders from a threatening vagrant.
Neely’s family said Penny should be tried for murder.
Penny, a former Marine infantry squad leader from Long Island, is free on $100,000 bail.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has six months to secure a grand jury indictment against Penny, according to Penny’s attorney, Steven M. Raiser.
It’s not clear if authorities will charge the other two men. But Christopher Neely said they should be.
“Whoever helped hold Jordan down assisted a homicide and should be charged,” he said. “Jordan could still be alive if the other men weren’t holding his arms … The other assailants stopped Jordan from saving himself.
“They have to be held accountable,” Christopher continued. “The Penny, the nickel and the dime should all be charged.”