Daniel Penny chokehold caused Jordan Neely death, even if homeless man had enough drugs in system to put down an elephant: ME testimony

The medical examiner who ruled Jordan Neely’s death was a homicide caused by Daniel Penny’s chokehold insisted Friday she’d stand by the ruling — even if it somehow turned out the homeless man had enough drugs in his body “to put down an elephant.”Video of the fatal subway encounter so convincingly revealed Neely had died from the maneuver, that “no toxicology result could have changed my opinion,” Dr.Cynthia Harris, who performed his autopsy, told jurors at Penny’s lightning-rod Manhattan manslaughter trial.

Footage of the fatal encounter shows the former Marine keeping Neely in the hold for more than six minutes — including 51 seconds after his body went limp — and makes clear that the homeless man did not suffer a drug overdose, Harris testified.Harris’ testimony came during cross-examination by Penny’s defense attorneys, who questioned her about initially saying on Neely’s death certificate that his cause of death was “inconclusive.”The doctor said she decided that Neely’s death was caused by “asphyxia,” consistent with being choked, after reviewing a journalist’s video of Neely “dying” while Penny’s arm is wrapped around his neck.“After watching it, I had no further questions about how he was dead,” she testified.Harris said that she reached her conclusion before receiving Neely’s toxicology report.The report ultimately showed that Neely, who jurors have heard had a history of abusing the synthetic marijuana drug K2, had the drug in his system when he died.But Harris said that she would have found the chokehold caused Neely’s death even if it turned out he had “enough fentanyl in his system to put down an elephant.”Video of the chokehold — which Harris said showed Neely’s face turning “purple” as Penny compressed the veins in his neck — shows that “there are no alternative reasonable explanations” for how he died, she testified.Harris also pinpointed for jurors the exact moment when Neely...