NEW YORK – Daniel Penny has been found not guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the subway chokehold of Jordan Neely.

This came after jurors told the court Friday morning that they could not reach an agreement on the main charge (second-degree manslaughter) and prosecutors moved to dismiss the complaint, prompting the judge to controversially allow them to do so only to advise the second prosecution.

Penny, a 26-year-old Navy veteran and architecture student, was charged with manslaughter and involuntary manslaughter for the way she stormed the subway train while Neely, a 30-year-old homeless man with schizophrenia, was in a chokehold and drunkenly shouting death threats synthetic marijuana called K2.

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

DANIEL PENNY RETURNS TO COURT TO COMPLETE PLEAS IN SUBWAY STRANGLEHOLD TRIAL

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

Someone clapped, and Zachary turned and stared: “Are you fucking trying to get killed?” The man who clapped later told Fox News he didn’t consider the comment a threat.

Hank Newsome, one of the heads of New York’s BLM department, commented, “It’s a small world.” Others on Neely’s side of the courtroom wept at the verdict.

In a statement, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, whose office secured the indictment of Penny through 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 was directed at his prosecutors.

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

“Unfortunately, talented prosecutors and their family members have been bombarded with hate and threats throughout the duration of this trial – on social media, by telephone and by email,” he said. “Simply put, this is unacceptable and everyone, regardless of their opinion on this case, should condemn it.”

Maud Maron, a former public defender and parental rights advocate who is running to unseat Bragg, condemned her opponent for filing the case from the start.

“The NYPD officers who initially interviewed Daniel Penny and refused to arrest him did it right,” she told Fox News Digital. :The jury in Manhattan, who heard all the evidence, deliberated and returned a verdict of not guilty, got it right. The New Yorkers and their fellow Americans who celebrated Daniel Penny as a hero and understood that he should never have been charged got it right. The only person who got it 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 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)

The incident occurred on May 1, 2023. Neely stormed onto an F train in Manhattan and shouted death threats. Witnesses said Neely’s threats frightened them more than a typical subway outburst. They were grateful for Penny’s intervention.

Neely had a lengthy criminal record, an active arrest warrant, suffered from psychosis and had a high use of K2, a synthetic form of marijuana that pathologists described as a stimulant. He also had the genetic disorder sickle cell anemia.

Just three days earlier, a straphanger on a J train was reportedly stabbed with an ice pick. It was about a month after a PBS reporter suffered a punch on a No. 4 train. A week earlier there was a collision in which the victim crashed into a moving R train and survived.

In this climate of fear, witnesses said they were afraid of Neely, who shouted death threats at them.

Witness Ivette Rosario, a 19-year-old student, testified that Neely screamed that someone was “going to die that day.”

“The tone in which he said it scared me,” she said. “I’ve seen situations, but not like this.”

In a voluntary interview with police after the incident, Penny expressed concern about a series of subway shunting incidents involving mentally ill people on the city’s public transport system.

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

“He was talking nonsense … but these guys push people in front of trains and stuff,” he told investigators. In the year before Penny met Neely, there were more than 20 subway scuffles. After the interview he was released without charge.

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

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

Jurors deliberated for a little less than four hours on Tuesday and all day on Wednesday, sending several notes to the judge. The items they requested included videos of the chokehold and Penny’s interview with police, as well as the judge’s instructions on justifying physical violence and definitions of recklessness and negligence.

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

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

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