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Jordan Neely had severe schizophrenia, expert testifies at NYC subway chokehold trial
By
Samantha Max
Published Nov 19, 2024
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By
Samantha Max
Published Nov 19, 2024
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A psychiatric expert testifying in Daniel Penny’s defense said Jordan Neely had one of the most severe histories of paranoid schizophrenia he has ever reviewed.
Dr. Alexander “Sasha” Bardey testified as a witness for Penny, who has pleaded not guilty to charges that he caused Neely’s death when he put him in a chokehold on an uptown F train for about six minutes last year. Penny, who was charged with manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide, has said he was trying to restrain Neely — not kill him — after Neely boarded the train and had begun shouting threats at passengers. Prosecutors say Penny was reckless and disregarded Neely’s humanity.
Bardey reviewed thousands of pages of Neely’s medical and psychiatric records, which he said detailed more than a dozen hospital stays between 2015 and 2021. During that time, he said, Neely often experienced paranoia and delusions. Sometimes Neely was afraid that hospital staff wanted to hurt him, while other times he had grandiose delusions that the rapper Tupac Shakur was instructing him to “change the world,” according to medical records referenced in court and shared with Gothamist.
“He is caught in his own head, and that is what’s driving his behavior,” Bardey said.
Before trial, prosecutors urged the judge not to allow the defense to share Neely’s psychiatric records with the jury. They said in pre-trial court papers that the defense was attempting to “smear” Neely’s character “so that the jury will devalue his life.” Penny’s attorneys have described Neely as “seething,” “psychotic” and “not in his right mind that day.” They told jurors during opening statements that Neely’s behavior was so “threatening” that Penny had no choice but to restrain him.
On Tuesday, Bardey told jurors about some of the patterns he observed as he read through Neely’s medical records, which he said show Neely was diagnosed with schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder, a mental health condition with similar symptoms to schizophrenia that also affects a patient’s moods. He said Neely’s symptoms were exacerbated by his regular use of synthetic cannabinoids, also known as K2, which he said can sometimes cause patients to become psychotic. Even when taken by people who don’t have schizophrenia, he said, synthetic cannabinoids can affect the brain for days or weeks after.
In January 2021, records show, Neely told staff at Metropolitan Hospital that he had smoked K2 that day and felt “depressed because I don’t got no money.”
“I’m cold and I don’t have anywhere to go right now because the subways are closed,” he said, according to the hospital notes.
Bardey said patients with schizophrenia also sometimes self-medicate with K2 or other drugs instead of taking their prescribed medication. In one note from a 2020 visit to Bellevue Hospital, a doctor wrote that Neely refused to take his medication and said “he did not need it.”
“He stated that he was diagnosed with schizophrenia before but he does not have a mental illness any more,” the doctor wrote. “Last admission as per his report was [a] few months ago for not taking meds.”
Bardey said it’s “clear” that Neely’s situation was “complicated by the existence of both schizophrenia and a K2 abuse issue.” Neely had synthetic cannabinoids in his system when he died, the medical examiner who performed his autopsy previously testified. But she said it was unclear exactly when Neely had ingested the drugs or how much.
Penny’s defense attorneys have suggested at trial that Neely’s schizophrenia and use of K2 could have contributed to his death — theories that the medical examiner refuted. But on Tuesday Attorney Thomas Kenniff asked Bardey more specifically about how Neely’s schizophrenia and drug use could have affected his behavior on the subway before Penny put him in a chokehold, citing the statements of several witnesses.
Bardey said one witness’s description that Neely had a strong odor is typical of patients with severe, untreated schizophrenia who can’t properly care for their hygiene. He also said a witness’s account that Neely’s screams on the train sounded “satanic” reflected notes in his medical records that he had heard the “devil’s voice.”
Bardey answered questions for less than an hour and then slowly shuffled off the witness stand, telling the judge that his feet had fallen asleep. Prosecutors didn’t ask him any questions.
Earlier in the day, Penny’s defense attorneys brought in several of his loved ones to tell jurors about his character, including his mother and two of his former platoon sergeants in the Marine Corps. Later this week, the defense is expected to call a forensic pathologist to testify. Penny may also testify, though the defense has not confirmed whether he will.
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public safety
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Samantha Max
Samantha reports on whether New Yorkers feel safe and whether the institutions that are supposed to protect them are working. Before coming to WNYC/Gothamist, she spent three years covering the criminal justice system in Tennessee for Nashville Public Radio. Her reporting on Nashville's police department received multiple awards, including the Daniel Schorr Journalism Prize. Samantha was also part of the inaugural class of Report for America, a service journalism program that sends up-and-coming reporters to local newsrooms across the country. She is a Northwestern University grad, a Baltimore native and fluent in Spanish. Got a tip? Email [email protected] or Signal: samanthamaxwnyc.93.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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