Daniel Penny’s subway chokehold trial continues Monday, with attorneys expected to begin their closing arguments after a Thanksgiving break.

The 26-year-old architecture student and Marine Corps veteran faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted of manslaughter in the death of Jordan Neely, a 30-year-old mentally ill homeless man who was high on synthetic marijuana when he stormed in subway car and began shouting threats at passengers.

There was an arrest warrant against Neely at the time, as the last witness in the case revealed before the defense dropped its case – he also had a long criminal history and suffered from schizophrenia.

Daniel Penny’s defense rests as final witness reveals Jordan Neely had an outstanding warrant, defendant not testifying

Daniel Penny arrives at the Manhattan Supreme Court in New York, NY on Monday, December 2, 2024. Closing arguments are expected to begin the second-degree manslaughter and involuntary manslaughter trial for the 2023 death of Jordan Neely on a New York subway. (Julia Bonavita/Fox News Digital)

Responding officers questioned Penny — without telling him that Neely had died — and then let him go. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office secured an indictment almost two weeks later and Penny turned herself in.

Various prosecution witnesses testified that Neely frightened them with death threats in a subway outburst that went far beyond the typical subway outbursts that many members of the jury had previously witnessed in the city’s struggling public transit system.

Defense attorney Steven Raiser went first and spoke for about two hours, arguing that Penny’s use of force was justified and legal and was not the sole cause of Neely’s death.

Jordan Neely is pictured before seeing the Michael Jackson film “This is It” outside the Regal Cinemas at 8th Avenue and 42nd Street in Times Square in New York in 2009. (Andrew Savulich/New York Daily News/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)

“All these riders and more, Daniel Penny was the one who moved to protect them. Why? Because he had something the others didn’t have, something unique to him. His training,” Raiser said. “Danny acted to save these people and there is no doubt that Danny did not know whether Jordan Neely was armed when he acted.”

Bragg, who was not present at the beginning of Raiser’s summary, arrived in person after the lunch break and sat in the second row. Raiser continued his remarks.

“The government wasn’t there. The police weren’t there. Danny did it,” Raiser told the jury. “And when he needed help, no one was there. The government has the guts to blame Danny because the police weren’t there? Blame Danny for holding on when the police weren’t there?”

It took seven minutes for police to respond to the 911 call and 20 minutes for paramedics to arrive, he said. Neely was “on a collision course with himself” and a “broken system” led to his death, the lawyer said.

WATCH: Former NYPD lieutenant says Daniel Penny trial sets ‘bad precedent’ for cops

When Raiser finished, Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Dafna Yoran gave a closing statement on behalf of the prosecution.

“No one had to die on May 1, 2023,” she said. “Jordan Neely entered the subway car in an extremely threatening manner…much less physical force would have done the trick…Daniel Penny could have easily restrained Neely without suffocating him. We are here today because the defendant used far too much violence for far too long and in far too reckless a manner.

Once arguments end, Judge Maxwell Wiley is expected to give detailed instructions to jurors before their deliberations, after the defense raised many objections to the way Bragg’s office handled the case, which the judge did early on admitted, raising concerns about “bias.”

Daniel Penny Defense calls forensic pathologist as witness: “Strokehold did not cause death.”

Prosecutors argue that Penny went too far when he restrained a belligerent, screaming Neely in a Manhattan subway car after he began screaming death threats.

Neely was black and Penny is white, and prosecutors appeared to highlight the case’s racial undertones in court, even though Penny is not accused of a hate crime. They allowed one witness to repeatedly refer to Penny as “the white man” and another to call him a “murderer,” even though no murder charges were filed in connection with the case.

Assistant District Attorney Dafna Yoran also brought up the term “murder,” prompting Wiley to ask the jury to disregard the term, explaining that “murder” means different things to a coroner than it does to a lawyer or a juror.

Witness Lauri Sitro said that in 30 years of riding the subway, she had seen many unstable people, but this “felt different.”

A courtroom sketch shows Laurie Sitro testifying in the trial of Daniel Penny in Manhattan Supreme Court in New York City on Friday, November 8, 2024. Penny, a Marine veteran, is on trial for the 2023 death of Jordan Neely on the New York City subway. (Jane Rosenberg)

“I was afraid for my son,” she said under cross-examination. “It’s not like you can pick up a five-year-old and run to the next train. I was very relieved when Daniel Penny stopped him from moving sporadically.”

Sitro wasn’t the only woman who told the court that Neely startled her when he stormed onto the train, shouting threats and violently throwing his jacket. Several did, including Ivette Rosarioa teenage straphanger who said she just wanted to “get away,” and Arethia Gittings, who said she was “a—less scared” and stayed at the scene to speak with responding officers.

A courtroom sketch shows Arethia Gittings testifying in the trial of Daniel Penny in Manhattan Supreme Court in New York City on Friday, November 8, 2024. Penny, a Marine veteran, is on trial for the 2023 death of Jordan Neely on the New York City subway. (Jane Rosenberg)

Gittings testified that it did not appear as if Neely would give up as Penny and the other men held him, that she was particularly frightened by the encounter, having previously suffered attacks on other subway cars, and that It didn’t seem like Penny was going to put pressure on Neely’s neck, but was trying to keep him still while the officers were on the way.

“I came back to thank Mr. Penny for what he had done in this worst-case scenario,” she testified.

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Another female passenger who testified was Caedryn Schrunk, a Nike brand manager, who said Neely boarded the train and immediately filled the car with the stench of “soiled sweatpants.”

Daniel Penny arrives at the Manhattan Criminal Courthouse building on Monday, November 25, 2024 in New York City. (Rashid Umar Abbasi for Fox News Digital)

“I was afraid I was going to die at that moment,” she told the court.

In addition to the involuntary manslaughter charge, Penny also faces a lesser charge of involuntary manslaughter. The jury must find that Penny acted “recklessly” in convicting her of manslaughter and “negligence” on the lesser charges.