Marine veteran Daniel Penny, 25, appears in Manhattan court as judge sets trial date of October 8 for chokehold death of Jordan Neely

Marine veteran Daniel Penny will face trial in October over the death of a mentally ill homeless man who was put in a fatal chokehold on a New York City subway last May. 

The 25-year-old appeared in Manhattan Supreme Court, dressed in a navy suit, white shirt and burgundy tie, on Wednesday where he is charged with the involuntary manslaughter of Jordan Neely.

Supreme Court Justice Maxwell Wiley set a trial date of October 8 as well as a suppression hearing for September 17. 

Penny has pleaded not guilty. His defense attorneys previously tried to get the case dismissed, claiming he ‘stepped in to save lives’ but this was rejected in January. 

He was 24 at the time of the incident and was filmed putting Neely into a chokehold and holding him on the floor until he was unconscious. 

Neely was pronounced dead at the scene and the medical examiner later ruled the death a homicide, saying his neck injuries proved the chokehold was what caused it. 

Daniel Penny appears in court on Wednesday morning. His trial date has been set for October 8

Marine veteran Daniel Penny appeared in a Manhattan court on Wednesday where the judge set a trial date of October 8 for chokehold death of Jordan Neely 

Penny, 25, is charged over the death of Jordan Neely, a mentally ill homeless man who he put in a chokehold on a New York City train last May

Neely’s father Andre Zachery was in attendance at court and looked emotional as a trial date looking into the death of his son was announced.

Lennon Edwards, a lawyer for Neely's family, said: ‘Andre Zachery and Jordan Neely's family they're still suffering. They're still in pain.

‘Justice has not been served yet but we're holding on to the belief that justice will be done in this case.

‘We want to remind you that when Jordan was on the train that day he was unarmed. He had no gun, he had no knife, he was hungry. He asked for food.

‘In his desperation, he was emotional but distressed does not mean dangerous and so we're asking you to keep an open mind and remember the pain this family is suffering.’

The attorney said he hopes the trial will allow people to see ‘what Daniel Penny really was that day’.

‘He was the dangerous one and we are trusting that the district attorney will be able to render justice on behalf of Jordan Neely's family,’ he added.

‘On that day Daniel Penny was judge, jury and executioner and we're expecting when this trial starts he will be facing a judge, jury and sentence.’

Neely's death sparked national outrage and many compared it to that of George Floyd's. His family enlisted the help of civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump.

But Penny's defense attorneys claim onlookers feared for their lives due to Neely's allegedly threatening behavior, and that the ex-marine stepped in to protect them.

Others say the incident crystalized New York City's crime crisis and spoke to the fear of many residents about the mentally ill who roam the subway system.

Last year, Penny's attorneys filed a request with the judge in October asking for the charges to be dismissed.

They quoted a witness on the train who described the Neely's threats as 'absolutely traumatizing' and beyond anything he had experienced in six years of riding the subway. Penny's lawyers called Neely 'insanely threatening'.

In the years before his death, Neely's mental health had deteriorated and the NYPD had a warrant for his arrest for punching an elderly woman on the subway. He was also accused of pushing a woman onto the train tracks.

Witnesses at the time of the incident said Neely was screaming that he was going to kill someone and didn't care about going to prison.

Penny held Neely in a chokehold on the subway car floor while others assisted on May 1 

Neely had been in and out of the city's homeless shelters in recent years, and his family say his mental health worsened dramatically after his mother was murdered when he was a teenager

Marine veteran Daniel Penny's lawyer Thomas Kenniff asked the judge to throw the case out in October but this request was denied 

Penny's lawyers asked the judge to throw the case out in October, questioning the medical examiner's finding and pointing to the fact Neely had synthetic drugs in his system that could have contributed to his death.

But Justice Wiley rejected their request in January, ruling that he was satisfied with the medical examiner's findings.

Thomas Kenniff, an attorney representing Penny, has praised Brooklyn prosecutors for not pursuing charges against a man who shot an aggressive passenger on the Subway last Thursday.

'If you approach it a different way, like in the video we just saw, you don't know if they have guns or knives and the situation can devolve,' he told Fox News.

'Is there a cruel irony that my client who did everything the right way is facing charges, while others who rightfully are not? Yeah, you could say it is.'