A Manhattan judge rejected former Marine Daniel Penny’s motion to dismiss the charges stemming from his May 2023 killing of homeless man Jordan Neely — in what the attorney for the victim’s family called a “big win.”
Judge Maxwell Wiley denied Penny’s attorneys’ motion in a written decision issued Wednesday, according to the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office.
Sign-wielding protesters tried to swarm Penny outside Manhattan Criminal Court, yelling that he was a murderer and that they were “gonna get your ass, cracker.”
“Daniel Penny is a murderer! He’s a murderer! You a murderer!” one man screamed through a megaphone as he bounded around the black Lexus in which Penny sat.
“There’s a murderer in this car! He choked out a New Yorker!” the man continued, as the NYPD tried to move him away.
Donte Mills, the Neely family’s attorney, called the judge’s ruling “a big win” while speaking to reporters after court.
“I think it’s important to know that the grand jury said Daniel Penny should face charges for killing Jordan Neely,” Mills said.
“His attorneys tried to get the judge to overrule that, to say what the grand jury said didn’t matter,” he continued. “But the judge didn’t do that. The judge said Daniel Penny will face these charges.
“We’re coming back here in March, and our expectation is that Daniel Penny is going to be found guilty for killing Mr. Jordan.”
Penny, a former infantry squad leader, has been indicted on charges of second-degree manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide for Neely’s death in the caught-on-camera, lightning-rod case.
He remains free on $100,000 bail, and faces up to 19 years behind bars if convicted.
Penny has said he didn’t mean to kill Neely when he grabbed him from behind on May 1 — but he felt he had to step in to protect the other passengers because Neely was throwing trash and threatening them.