A Manhattan grand jury could soon decide whether to indict former Marine Daniel Penny, who has been charged with manslaughter for fatally choking homeless man Jordan Neely during a subway confrontation last month, The Post has learned.
Impaneled by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, the grand jury must indict Penny, 24, before he is tried on the second-degree charge.
He faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted.
That vote could come as early as Wednesday, sources said.
Penny, who is free on $100,000 bail, first surrendered himself to cops on May 12 — or nearly two weeks after he laced his arms around the disturbed homeless man’s neck during a chaotic confrontation on an F train in Manhattan.
Penny’s lawyers have said their client acted in self-defense — Neely was allegedly yelling, screaming, and threatening other passengers, according to eyewitnesses.
In a series of videos released Sunday, Penny said he wasn’t trying to kill Neely when he grabbed him.
But he couldn’t sit still while Neely ranted.
“There’s a common misconception that Marines don’t get scared. We’re actually taught one of our core values is courage, and courage is not the absence of fear but how you handle fear,” he said. “I was scared for myself, but I looked around, there was women and children, he was yelling in their faces saying these threats. I just couldn’t sit still.”
But the confrontation quickly went south.
Neely struggled, but passed out and died.
The city medical examiner later ruled his death a homicide, and said the troubled former street performer died from “compression of the neck.”
Neely had a lengthy history of mental illness — and scores of run-ins with New York’s Finest.
After his death, his family blamed authorities for not making sure he got the care he needed.
And they’ve called for Penny to face murder charges.
During a fiery eulogy last month, the Rev. Al Sharpton told a packed church that “when they choked Jordan, they put their arms around all of us.”
Sharpton also criticized authorities’ initial decision to release Penny in the wake of the killing.
“Who thought it was all right for this man to choke a brother to death and go home to see his family?” Sharpton asked the crowd at Mount Neboh Baptist Church in Harlem. “Who gave the order it was all right to release him?”
Penny is due back in court on July 17.
