It wasn’t a chokehold that killed Jordan Neely.
That was the testimony of forensic pathologist Dr. Satish Chundru for the defense — and he was pretty damn convincing.
Or at least effective at 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 in declaring that Neely died of the chokehold.
Chundru, who had previously worked as a medical examiner in both Austin and Miami, called her findings, “speculative.” He added that it was “shocking” they rendered their ruling in only two days.
Harris came to her conclusion before the toxicology report came back, saying even if it turned out that Neely had enough fentanyl in him “to put down an elephant” she still would have stuck with her original decision.
Chundru was simple and straightforward in his explanation: A chokehold death is basically a two part process.
“Phase one is unconsciousness; you have to put enough consistent pressure to render the person unconscious,” Chundru said. “Phase two is you have to sustain that pressure for an extended period of time that leads to death.”
Chundru said Neely had already expired or was going through the dying process when he went limp. Prosecutors say Penny held Neely in a chokehold for 51 seconds after he passed out.
But Chundru said, “Neely never went unconscious before that, which is what you need if it’s a chokehold death.”
So what did kill him? Chundru said it was the “combined effects” of synthetic marijuana otherwise known as K2, schizophrenia, his struggle and restraint, and sickle cell crisis, an often painful and distressing event, where cells change shape and block blood vessels.
Harris was by far the most effective witness for the prosecution, which put forth a roster of bystanders, who said they’ve never experienced that type of terror on a subway when Neely, a homeless man with a history of drug use and mental illness boarded the uptown F train and started ranting that he was going to “kill.” One woman told the jury that she even thanked Penny for his actions that day.
Harris withstood three days on the stand, a grueling process that would have tested the most elite of attention spans.
During a morning break in Chundru’s testimony, prosecutors huddled with Harris, who sat in the second row taking notes, and held a very intense confab.
Only the jury knows how it went over, but I thought Chundru did a great job at poking those necessary holes in the prosecution’s case.
But after a morning of discussing of blood chokes, air chokes and arteries, the prosecution went straight for Chundru’s jugular during a combative cross examination.
Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Dafna Yoran tried to paint him as a less than discerning hired gun who performed far too many autopsies and earned loads of money for his services. She pointed out that he is regularly hired by defense attorneys to refute the prosecution. (He said it was about 60 percent of the cases he took on).
Chundru was unapologetic saying he worked hard and added that his “business is doing well.”
Yoran pressed the forensic pathologist, asking if he thinks he knows better than NYC Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, asking: “You know this is the biggest Medical Examiner in the country?”
“They’ve lost half their staff,” Chundru countered.
A very feisty and dogged Yoran pulled sections from a textbook written by his mentor, to refute some of his testimony, but Chundru remained unflappable on the stand, both on Thursday and Friday.
The trial resumes next week.