A day before his acquittal in the case involving the death of a New York City homeless man in 2023, Daniel Penny was seen sharing a sweet moment with his unidentified girlfriend.
The couple was witnessed embracing and holding hands at a popular brunch spot in Manhattan. This occurred on a Sunday, just hours before the 26-year-old was declared not guilty of all allegations related to the chokehold incident that resulted in the death of Jordan Neely.
Sitting outdoors at a restaurant in the West Village, Penny and his partner engaged in a deep conversation. This encounter took place shortly after the former Marine had a manslaughter charge dropped in Manhattan Criminal Court.
The two kept a low profile at the eatery, inching close to each other at a point to share an embrace. Each wore matching dark sunglasses and coats.
Penny was also seen clutching a single rose with his armed wrapped around the woman.
He had faced 15 years in prison if convicted Friday on the manslaughter charge.
A lesser charge of criminally negligent homicide, however, still remained, after jurors remained deadlocked over whether the West Islip man caused 30-year-old Neely’s death.
On Monday, the 12-person panel found him not guilty – causing progressives like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Chivona Newsome, the co-founder of Black Lives Matter Greater New York, to express disdain.
Both painted Penny as a criminal who cheated justice, joining an array of activists, anchors, and politicians in doing so.
Ocasio-Cortez, in a resurfaced clip that’s gone viral, claimed straphangers should be scared at the concept of Penny as a free man.
‘If we do not want violence on the subways and the point of our justice system is a level of accountability to prevent a person who does not have remorse about taking another person’s life,’ the the 35-year-old representative for parts of the Bronx and Queens said.
‘I mean even people who have engaged in manslaughter or have taken a life accidentally express remorse.’
‘The fact that a person has expressed no remorse indicates a risk that it may happen again,’ she continued, with the video filmed during the trial viewed more than 730,000 times.
‘If we do not want to unleash that level of violence, then we should exert a level of accountability to prevent that from happening,’ the Bronx native concluded.
Newsome, a co-founder of Black Lives Matter of Greater New York, played the race card, arguing both on TV and outside the Manhattan courthouse where protesters convened to call Penny a murderer the decision was a sign of institutionalized racism.
‘Even as when his body went limp, he was still viewed as a criminal,’ she told NewsNation’s Dan Abrams of Neely, who was black.
‘Jordan Neely was in a chokehold for over four minutes, turning purple… And people still saw him as a harm,’ she explained.
Hours before, she appeared alongside her brother, Walter ‘Hawk’ Newsome, on the courthouse steps, as many cried and others expressed anger to claim the outcome was evidence of racial inequality.
‘That’s what happened here in America today, that no matter the facts, no matter the evidence, a white man can sneak [up] on a black man from behind and murder him in a 6-minute video,’ Newsome said, touting a sign that read ‘Justice for Jordan Neely.’
Joined by Neely’s father, who at one point buried his face in his arms to cry, the male Newsome went on to air a need for ‘black vigilantes.’
‘Everybody else has vigilantes. We need some black vigilantes,’ he said. ‘People want to jump up and choke us and kill us for being loud, how about we do the same when they attempt to oppress us.’
Donte Mills, an attorney for Neely’s family, added that the family had been left ‘devastated’ by the verdict, which saved Penny from a maximum of four years in prison.
‘Over and over again, we keep coming to the system, asking the system to let us know that our lives have value,’ he said.
‘Jordan Neely was choked to death by someone who didn’t care people was telling him to stop. … The jury in this case let us down.’
Neely, meanwhile, celebrated the court decision in Manhattan’s Financial District at Stone Street Tavern with his own attorneys, escaping the courthouse through a backdoor.
As this was happening, protesters gathered downtown and talking heads openly railed against the decision.
Penny had placed Neely in a chokehold on the crowded F train car floor for several minutes, after the mentally ill street performer began threatening commuters.
The subsequent court case went on to divide the county, concluding Monday after three days of proceedings that paved the way for a plethora of liberal-led meltdowns.
On Tuesday, MSNBC’s Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough tore into the US government for not doing enough for the mentally ill – using the Penny acquittal and Neely’s psychological state before he was killed to prove of his point.
‘Whether you’re talking about New York, whether you’re talking about Florida, whether you’re talking about California, you have people walking about on the streets that have mental health issues,’ Scarborough said.
The host said there is ‘nothing compassionate’ or ‘progressive’ about ‘leaving people with mental health problems on the street’.
‘We need to spend more money as a society taking care of those who have mental health challenges and not just say, yeah, you can live on the streets. Bad things happen,’ the host said.
The 61-year-old went on to demand the US to spend more money for treatment, saying the current system was ‘grossly insufficient’ as it stands.
The NAACP, meanwhile, slammed the acquittal as ‘a dangerous precedent [that embraces] vigilantism and [disregards] the sanctity of human life.’
Rep. Summer Lee, a Democrat from Pennsylvania, took to X to offer similar sentiments.
‘The acquittal of Daniel Penny in the murder of Jordan Neely is a painful reminder of a long-standing reality,’ she wrote. ‘Vigilante violence against Black people often goes unchecked.
‘Jordan deserved compassion, not violence. We stand with his loved ones in demanding accountability.’
Neely’s father, Andre Zachery, said that he had lost faith in the criminal justice system.
‘I just want to say I miss my son,’ he told reporters on the crowded courthouse steps, promising a civil lawsuit from him and the rest of the late Michael Jackson impersonator’s relatives.
‘My son didn’t have to go through this,’ he said over chants that Penny was a ‘murderer’ and a ‘subway strangler.’
‘I didn’t have to go through this either. It hurts. It really, really hurts. I had enough of this, the system is rigged.’
Others, like Republican political strategist Scott Jennings, offered a different take, calling Penny ‘the good guy’ in the contentious case during a Tuesday talk
Two members of the public, meanwhile, were booted from the courtroom after being caught recording the proceedings, officials said.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, in a statement, said he respected the jury’s decision and process.
