Daniel Penny trial: Jury returns verdict in subway chokehold case

NEW YORK – Daniel Penny has been found not guilty of criminally negligent homicide in the subway death of Jordan Neely.

It comes after jurors told the court Friday morning they could not agree on the top charge, second-degree manslaughter, and prosecutors moved to dismiss it, prompting the judge to controversially allow them to discuss only the second charge .

Penny, a 26-year-old Marine veteran and architecture student, was charged with manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide in the subway death of Neely, a 30-year-old homeless man with schizophrenia who burst onto the train and yelled death threats while high. on a type of synthetic marijuana known as K2.

Penny’s side of the courtroom erupted in cheers, prompting an angry response from Neely, including his father, Andre Zachary, who was escorted out of the courthouse along with several Black Lives Matter leaders after allegedly snapping.

DANIEL PENNY RETURNS TO COURT FOR CLOSING ARGUMENT IN SUBWAY CHOKEHOLD

Daniel Penny was found not guilty in the death of Jordan Neely. Daniel Penny leaves the courts hurriedly after the verdict with his lawyers, Manhattan, New York, USA, December 9, 2024 (Rashid Umar Abbasi for Fox News Digital)

Someone clapped and Zachary turned and glared, “Are you trying to get killed?” The man who clapped later told Fox News that he did not take the comment as a threat.

Hank Newsome, head of the BLM’s New York branch, commented that “It’s a small world.” Others on Neely’s side of the courtroom were seen crying at the verdict.

In a statement, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, whose office secured charges against Penny with a grand jury indictment after police questioned and released him in connection with the incident, said he would respect the jury’s decision. However, he also condemned “unacceptable” behavior that he said had been directed at his accusers.

Screenshot from bystander video showing Jordan Neely being held in a choke hold on the New York subway. (Luces de Nueva York/Juan Alberto Vazquez via Storyful)

“Unfortunately, during this trial, talented career prosecutors and their family members were besieged with hate and threats – on social media, by phone and by email,” he said. “Simply put, this is unacceptable and everyone, regardless of your opinion on this matter, should condemn it.”

Maud Maron, a former public defender and parental rights advocate who is running to unseat Bragg, blasted her opponent for bringing the case to begin with.

“The NYPD officers who initially interviewed Daniel Penny and declined to arrest him were proven right,” she told Fox News Digital. : The Manhattan jury, hearing all the evidence, deliberating, and returning a verdict of not guilty, was right. The New Yorkers and their fellow Americans who rooted for Daniel Penny as a hero and understood that he should never have been charged in the first place were proved right. The only person who was wrong was Alvin Bragg. DA Bragg has pursued a ruthless ideological agenda since his first day in office. Manhattan deserves a District Attorney who will defend all New Yorkers, apply the law fairly, and make Daniel Penny’s heroism unnecessary by cleaning up the subways and streets of New York City.”

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

The incident happened on May 1, 2023. Neely burst onto an F train in Manhattan screaming death threats. Witnesses testified that Neely’s threats scared them more than a typical subway outburst would. They were grateful for Penny’s intervention.

Neely had a long criminal record, an active warrant, a history of psychosis and was high on K2, a synthetic form of marijuana, which pathologists described as a stimulant. He also had the sickle cell trait genetic disorder.

Just three days earlier, a straphanger had been stabbed with an ice pick on a J train, according to reports at the time. It was about a month after a PBS reporter was run over on a No. 4 train. There was a push a week before that and the victim hit the side of a moving R train and survived.

In that climate of fear, witnesses said they were terrified of Neely, who yelled death threats at them.

Witness Ivette Rosario, a 19-year-old student, testified that Neely yelled that someone would “die that day.”

“I was scared by the tone of him saying that,” she said. “I have seen situations, but not like this.

Penny, in a voluntary interview with police after the incident, raised concerns about a series of subway incidents involving mentally ill people on the city’s transit system.

Daniel Penny arrives at Manhattan Supreme Court in New York, NY on Tuesday, December 3, 2024. (Rashid Umar Abbasi for Fox News Digital)

“He was talking gibberish… but these guys push people in front of trains and stuff,” he told detectives. There were more than 20 subway pushes in the year before Penny met Neely. He was released without charge after the interview.

Kyle Rittenhouse, who was also acquitted at trial after shooting three men in self-defense at a Black Lives Matter protest in 2020, congratulated Penny in a post on X.

But Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office secured a grand jury indictment days later, and Penny was arrested on May 12.

Jurors deliberated for a little less than four hours Tuesday and throughout Wednesday, sending numerous notes to the judge. Among the items they requested were videos of the strangulation and of Penny’s interview with police, as well as the judge’s instructions regarding justification for physical force and the definitions of recklessness and negligence.

Penny would have faced a maximum sentence of four years in prison if convicted of the lesser charge.

Daniel Penny arrives at the Manhattan Criminal Courthouse building in New York City, Monday, Nov. 25, 2024, to begin closing arguments. (Rashid Umar Abbasi for Fox News Digital)

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