NEW YORK – Daniel Penny has been acquitted of criminally negligent homicide in the subway strangulation death of Jordan Neely.
This comes after jurors said in court Friday morning that they could not reach an agreement on the top charge, second-degree manslaughter, and prosecutors moved to dismiss it. This follows the controversial decision to allow deliberations on only the second charge.
Penny, a 26-year-old Marine Corps veteran and architecture student, was charged with manslaughter and criminal negligence for suffocating Neely, a 30-year-old homeless man with schizophrenia, on the subway after he barged onto the train while high and screaming death threats. He was charged with murder. About a type of synthetic marijuana known as K2.
It prompted cheers from Penny's side of the courtroom and an angry response from Neely's side. Among them was her father, Andre Zachary, who was escorted from the courtroom along with several Black Lives Matter leaders for allegedly snapping.
Daniel Penny appears for closing argument in subway chokehold trial
Daniel Penny was not found guilty in Jordan Neely's death. On December 9, 2024, in Manhattan, New York, USA, Daniel Penny and his lawyer rushed out of the courtroom after the verdict. (Rashid Umar Abbasi, Fox News Digital)
When someone clapped, Zachary turned and glared, “Are you going to get killed?'' The man who clapped later told Fox News that he did not take the comment as a threat.
“It's a small world,” said Hank Newsom, BLM New York chapter leader. Others on Neely's side of the courtroom were also seen crying as they watched the verdict.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said in a statement that after police questioned and released Penney in connection with the incident, he secured a grand jury indictment against Penny and said he respected the jury's decision. . But it also condemned the “unacceptable” conduct it said targeted prosecutors.
Screenshot of bystander video showing Jordan Neely being strangled on the New York City subway. (Luces de Nueva York/Juan Alberto Vazquez, via Storyful)
“Unfortunately, during this trial, this talented career prosecutor and his family were subjected to hate and threats via social media, phone calls, and emails,” he said. “Simply put, this is unacceptable and should be condemned by everyone, regardless of their opinion on the matter.”
Maude Maron, a former public defender and parent's rights advocate who is running to oust Mr. Bragg, blamed his opponents for filing the lawsuit in the first place.
“The NYPD officers were correct in initially questioning Daniel Penny and refusing to arrest him,” she told Fox News Digital. : The Manhattan jury, which heard all the evidence, deliberated, and returned a verdict of not guilty, made the correct verdict. New Yorkers and their fellow citizens made the right decision by rooting for Daniel Penny as a hero and understanding that he should never have been prosecuted in the first place. Only Alvin Bragg got this wrong. Prosecutor Bragg has pursued a reckless ideological agenda since his first day in office. Manhattan deserves a District Attorney who will protect all New Yorkers, apply the law fairly, and make the heroics of Daniel Penny unnecessary by cleaning up New York City's subways and streets. ”
Jordan Neely is pictured outside the Regal Cinemas on 8th Avenue and 42nd Street in New York's Times Square in 2009 before going to see the Michael Jackson movie “This Is It.” (Andrew Sabrich/New York Daily News/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
The incident occurred on May 1, 2023. Neely stormed onto a Manhattan F train while shouting death threats. Witnesses said Neely's threats were scarier than a typical subway riot. They were grateful for Penny's intervention.
Neely had a long criminal history, active arrest warrants, a history of mental illness and was addicted to K2, a synthetic marijuana that pathologists described as meth. He also had the genetic disease sickle cell trait.
According to reports at the time, a J Train strap hanger was stabbed with an ice pick just three days earlier. It was about a month after a PBS reporter was sucker punched on the 4th train. A week earlier, there had been a shoving incident in which the victim collided with the side of a moving R train. and survived.
In that atmosphere of fear, witnesses said they were frightened by Neely, who kept shouting death threats.
A witness, 19-year-old student Yvette Rosario, said Neely yelled, “Someone is going to die that day.”
“The tone he was speaking in scared me,” she said. “I looked at the situation and it was not like that.
In a voluntary interview with police after the incident, Penny expressed concern about a series of subway break-ins involving mentally ill people on the city's transit system.
Danielle Penny arrives at Manhattan Supreme Court on Tuesday, December 3, 2024 in New York, New York. (Rashid Umar Abbasi, Fox News Digital)
“He was talking gibberish…but they're shoving people in front of trains and stuff,” he told detectives. In the year before Penny met Neely, there were more than 20 subway crashes. He was released without charge after questioning.
Kyle Rittenhouse, who was also acquitted of shooting three men in self-defense during the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests, also congratulated Penny in a post about X.
However, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office secured a grand jury indictment several days later, and Penny was arrested on May 12th.
Jurors deliberated for just under four hours on Tuesday and all day Wednesday, sending several notes to the judge. Their requests included videos of the chokehold and Penny's interview with police, as well as the judge's instructions on justifying physical violence and defining recklessness and negligence.
If convicted of the lesser charge, Penny faces up to four years in prison.
Daniel Penny arrives at the Manhattan Criminal Court building for the start of closing arguments on Monday, November 25, 2024 in New York City. (Rashid Umar Abbasi, Fox News Digital)
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