It wasn’t a choke hold that killed Jordan Neely.
That was the testimony of forensic pathologist Dr. Satish Chundru for the defense – and he was quite convincing.
Or at least effective in sowing reasonable doubt that Daniel Penny’s maneuver caused Neely’s death on an uptown F train on May 1, 2023.
On the stand, Chundru calmly and confidently explained why city medical examiner Dr. Cynthia Harris was wrong when he stated that Neely died from the chokehold.
Chundru, who had previously worked as a medical researcher in both Austin and Miami, called her findings “speculative.” He added that it was “shocking” that they made their ruling in just two days.
Harris came to her conclusion before the toxicology report came back, saying that even if it turned out that Neely had enough fentanyl in her “to kill an elephant,” she would still have stood by her original decision.
Chundru was simple and clear in his explanation: death by chokehold is actually in two parts.
“Stage one is unconsciousness; you have to apply enough steady pressure to render the person unconscious,” Chundru said. “Stage two is you have to maintain that pressure for an extended period of time, which leads to death.”
Chundru said Neely had already died or was in the process of dying when he went limp. Prosecutors say Penny put Neely in a chokehold for 51 seconds after he passed out.
But Chundru said, “Neely was never unconscious before that, and that’s what you need if it’s a death by chokehold.”
So what killed him? Chundru said it was the “combined effects” of synthetic marijuana, also known as K2, schizophrenia, its struggle and self-control, and sickle cell crisis, an often painful and distressing event in which cells change shape and block blood vessels.
Harris was by far the most effective witness for the prosecution, who presented a list of bystanders who said they had never experienced this kind of terror on the subway when Neely, a homeless man with a history of drug use and mental illness, stepped aboard. the uptown F train and started ranting that he was going to “kill.” One woman told the jury she even thanked Penny for his actions that day.
Harris endured three days on the stand, a grueling process that would have tested the attention span of the most elite people.
During a morning break during Chundru’s testimony, prosecutors huddled with Harris, who was sitting in the second row taking notes, and had a very intense conversation.
Only the jury knows how it turned out, but I thought Chundru did an excellent job of poking the necessary holes in the prosecution’s case.
But after a morning of discussion about blood chokes, air chokes and arteries, the prosecutor went straight for Chundru’s jugular during a combative cross-examination.
Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Dafna Yoran tried to portray him as an uncritical hitman who performed far too many autopsies and earned a lot of money for his services. She pointed out that he is regularly hired by lawyers to refute the prosecution. (He said this was about 60 percent of the cases he handled).
Chundru was unapologetic, saying he was working hard and adding that his “company is doing well.”
Yoran pressed the forensic pathologist, asking if he thinks he knows better than the NYC Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, asking, “Do you know this is the largest medical examiner in the country?”
“They lost half their staff,” Chundru countered.
A very spirited and persistent Yoran took excerpts from a textbook written by his mentor, to refute part of his testimony, but Chundru remained unperturbed on the stand, both Thursday and Friday.
The trial will resume next week.
