A U.S. Marine veteran pleaded not guilty Wednesday in the fatal chokehold of a man who was behaving erratically on a New York City subway train.Daniel Penny, 24, pleaded not guilty to second-degree manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide in the May 1 death of Jordan Neely, a former Michael Jackson impersonator who was shouting and begging for money when Penny pinned him to the floor of the moving subway car with the help of two other passengers and held him in a chokehold for more than three minutes.Neely, 30, lost consciousness during the struggle and was pronounced dead at a hospital.A grand jury voted to indict Penny on updated charges earlier this month. Wednesday's arraignment on the charges lasted mere minutes. Penny, who is free on bond, only uttered the words “not guilty” before he left the courtroom with his lawyers.Penny, who served in the Marines for four years and was discharged in 2021, has said he acted to protect himself and others from Neely, who shouted “I’m gonna’ kill you” and said he was “ready to die” or go to jail for life.“He was yelling in their faces saying these threats,” Penny said in a video released by his attorneys. “I just couldn’t sit still.”Neely's family members and their supporters have said Neely, who struggled with mental illness and homelessness, was crying out for help and was met with violence.“What happened to Jordan was a crime and this family shouldn’t have to stand by themselves,” the Rev. Al Sharpton said at Neely's May 19 funeral.Neely's death aboard an F train in Manhattan quickly became a flashpoint in the nation's debates over racial justice and crime, with Republican politicians including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis hailing Penny as a hero while Sharpton and others compared the death of Neely, who was Black, at the hands of Penny, who is white, to the 1984 subway shooting of four Black men by Bernhard Goetz, a white man dubbed the “subway vigilante” who was eventually acquitted of charges in the shooting except for carrying an unlicensed gun.

A Manhattan grand jury has voted to indict Daniel Penny, the Marine veteran who held Jordan Neely in a fatal chokehold on the New York City subway, according to a source with knowledge of the case. Penny, 24, was indicted on second-degree manslaughter charges. Penny surrendered to police last month to face a second-degree manslaughter charge. He has since been out on a $100,000 bond. Penny held Neely, a homeless man and street artist, in a chokehold on the subway train on May 1 after Neely began shouting at passengers that he was hungry and thirsty and didn’t care whether he died. Penny forced 30-year-old Neely to the train floor and restrained him in a chokehold until he stopped breathing. A medical examiner ruled Neely’s death a homicide. Video above: Rev. Al Sharpton delivers Jordan Neely's eulogyCNN has reached out to Penny’s attorneys and the attorneys representing Neely’s family.In May, Penny told the New York Post he was “deeply saddened by the loss of life,” amid what has become a contentious homicide case that has highlighted the city’s handling of unhoused people.Neely was on a New York City Department of Homeless Services list of the city’s homeless with acute needs – sometimes referred to internally as the “Top 50” list – because people on the list tend to disappear, a source told CNN.Penny told the newspaper he would take action in a similar situation again, “if there was a threat and danger in the present.” Penny said he is not a white supremacist and race was not a factor.In response to the May interview, Neely family attorneys called Penny a “killer.”“This is an advertisement to soften the public’s view of Daniel Penny who choked Jordan Neely to death. We never called him a white supremacist, we called him a killer,” attorneys Donte Mills and Lennon Edwards said at the time. “We want to know why he didn’t let go of that chokehold until Jordan was dead.”Neely’s killing, part of which was captured on video that was posted online, sparked demonstrations calling for justice in his case as Manhattan prosecutors spent days deliberating how to proceed before apprehending and charging Penny.