Daniel Penny was found not guilty of killing Jordan Neely with a fatal chokehold in a NYC subway car on May 1, 2023.
Cellphone video showed Neely verbally assaulting passengers in the subway car before Penny placed him in a chokehold.
According to reports, a bystander stepped inside the train car and warned Penny: “If you suffocate him, that’s it. You don’t want to catch a murder charge.”
Penny, 26, released the chokehold and the men rolled Neely over onto his side. Neely was later pronounced dead at a nearby hospital.
Jurors could not agree on a verdict on Friday, Dec. 6. Judge Maxwell Wiley then accepted the prosecution’s request to drop the top manslaughter charge against the marine veteran after the jury could not come to an unanimous decision.
Penny’s defense lawyers demanded a hung jury and a new trial. But in a shock decision, the judge dropped the manslaughter charge and allowed the jurors to deliberate on the second, lesser charge of negligent homicide.
The jury found him not guilty.
Penny faced four years in prison if he was found guilty on the lesser charge of negligent homicide.
Neely, who was best known as a Michael Jackson impersonator in NYC, had a lengthy criminal record.
Neely was a 30-year-old homeless man when he died. His death sparked widespread outrage.
However, some New Yorkers say Neely’s violent past and criminal history made it hard to show sympathy for him.
Neely’s aunt said he was diagnosed with schizophrenia and autism as a teenager. He spiraled out of control after his mother, Christie, was strangled to death by her boyfriend in 2007.
Neely’s father, who abandoned him at a young age, filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Penny last week.
This is Jordan Neely.
On Monday, he was lynched.
On the NYC subway he started telling passengers that he was fed up being hungry, thirsty and having no place to rest. He began to shout in his frustration, and threw his jacket on the floor.
An ex-marine then murdered him.? pic.twitter.com/givJukrhlK
— Marxist777 (@Marxist777) May 3, 2023
Neely was arrested 42 times in 10 years for violent incidents, including punching a 67-year-old woman in the face and attempting to shove a man onto the tracks.
In a video that resurfaced in 2023, he was seen attacking members of the LGBT+ community in NYC.
In the undated video, Neely is dressed as his idol Michael Jackson while hurling offensive slurs at people on a crowded sidewalk in NYC.
“You look like a f****t,” he tells one person. “You look like a f*****g drag queen.”
The person behind the camera called Neely: “Angry Michael.”
Here is Jordan Neely openly attacking the gay community, drag queens, and using homophobic slurs before physically assaulting a man.
Where do liberals go from here? pic.twitter.com/c5dSMXMwsS
— Amiri King (@AmiriKing) May 5, 2023
