NEW YORK (AP) 鈥� A Marine veteran who used a chokehold on an agitated subway rider was acquitted on Monday in a death for differing views about public safety, valor and vigilantism.
A Manhattan jury cleared of criminally negligent homicide in 鈥檚 2023 death. A more serious last week because the jury deadlocked on that count.
Penny, who had shown little expression during the trial, briefly smiled as the verdict was read. While celebrating later with his attorneys, he said he felt 鈥済reat.鈥�
Both applause and anger erupted in the courtroom, and Neely's father and two supporters were ushered out after audibly reacting. Another person also left, wailing with tears.
鈥淚t really, really hurts,鈥� Neely鈥檚 father, Andre Zachery, said outside the courthouse. 鈥淚 had enough of this. The system is rigged."
The case amplified many American fault lines, among them race, politics, crime, urban life, mental illness and homelessness. Neely was Black. Penny is white.
There were sometimes outside the courthouse, including on Monday. High-profile while prominent .
Penny鈥檚 attorneys argued he was from a volatile, mentally ill man who was making alarming remarks and gestures.
Penny 鈥渇inally got the justice he deserved,鈥� one of his lawyers, Thomas Kenniff, said while celebrating the outcome with him at a downtown Manhattan pub.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, a Democrat whose office brought the case, said prosecutors 鈥渇ollowed the facts and the evidence from beginning to end鈥� and respect the verdict.
The anonymous jury, which had , was escorted out of court to a van.
Penny, 26, served four years in the Marines and went on to study architecture.
Neely, 30, was a sometime subway performer with a tragic life story: His mother was killed and stuffed in a suitcase when he was a teenager.
As a younger man, Neely 鈥� complete with moonwalks 鈥� on the city鈥檚 streets and subways. But Neely also struggled with mental illness after losing his mother, whose boyfriend was convicted of murdering her.
He subsequently was diagnosed with depression and schizophrenia, was repeatedly hospitalized, and used the synthetic cannabinoid K2 and realized it negatively affected his thinking and behavior, according to medical records seen at the trial. The drug was in his system when he died.
Neely told a doctor in 2017 that being homeless, living in poverty and having to 鈥渄ig through the garbage鈥� for food made him feel so hopeless that he sometimes thought of killing himself, hospital records show.
About six years later, he boarded a subway under Manhattan on May 1, 2023, hurled his jacket onto the floor, and declared that he was hungry and thirsty and didn鈥檛 care if he died or went to jail, witnesses said. Some told 911 operators that he tried to attack people or indicated he鈥檇 harm riders, and several testified that they were afraid.
Neely was unarmed, with nothing but a muffin in his pocket, and didn鈥檛 touch any passengers. One said he made lunging movements that alarmed her enough that she shielded her 5-year-old from him.
Penny came up behind Neely, grabbed his neck, took him to the floor and 鈥減ut him out,鈥� as the veteran told police at the scene.
showed that at one point during the roughly six-minute hold, Neely tapped an onlooker鈥檚 leg and gestured to him. Later, he briefly got an arm free. But he went still nearly a minute before Penny released him.
鈥淗e鈥檚 dying,鈥� an unseen bystander said in one video. 鈥淟et him go!鈥�
A witness who testified that he told Penny to free the man, though Penny鈥檚 lawyers noted the witness鈥� story changed significantly over time.
Penny told detectives shortly after the encounter that Neely threatened to kill people and the chokehold was an attempt to 鈥渄e-escalate鈥� the situation until police could arrive. The veteran said he held on so long because Neely periodically tried to break loose.
鈥淚 wasn鈥檛 trying to injure him. I鈥檓 just trying to keep him from hurting anyone else. He鈥檚 threatening people. That鈥檚 what we learn in the Marine Corps,鈥� Penny told the detectives.
However, one of Penny's Marine Corps instructors a chokehold technique he鈥檇 been taught.
Prosecutors to someone he perceived as a peril, not a person. Prosecutors also argued that any need to protect passengers quickly ebbed when the train doors opened at the next station, seconds after Penny took action.
Although Penny told police he鈥檇 used 鈥渁 choke鈥� or 鈥渁 chokehold,鈥� one of his lawyers, Steven Raiser, cast it as a Marine-taught chokehold 鈥渕odified as a simple civilian restraint.鈥� The defense lawyers contended Penny didn鈥檛 consistently apply enough pressure to kill Neely.
Contradicting a , a pathologist hired by the defense but from the combined effects of K2, schizophrenia, his struggle and restraint, and a blood condition that can lead to fatal complications during exertion.
Penny , but and fellow Marines did 鈥� describing him as an upstanding, patriotic and empathetic man.
The manslaughter charge would have required proving that Penny recklessly caused Neely's death. Criminally negligent homicide involves engaging in serious 鈥渂lameworthy conduct鈥� while not perceiving such a risk. Both charges were felonies punishable by prison time.
During the criminal trial, Neely鈥檚 father against Penny.
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Associated Press journalists Joseph B. Frederick and Ted Shaffrey contributed.
Jennifer Peltz, The Associated Press
