Daniel Penny, a Marine veteran acquitted on a charge of criminally negligent homicide in Manhattan in December, has been employed by one in all Silicon Valley’s most prestigious enterprise capital corporations to hitch its “American Dynamism” staff.
Mr. Penny, a Lengthy Island native and former structure scholar, will work in a gaggle that helps American pursuits, together with the aerospace, protection and manufacturing sectors, in accordance with the web site of the corporate, Andreessen Horowitz.
Mr. Penny was charged in 2023 by the Manhattan district lawyer’s workplace with manslaughter and criminally negligent murder after a video of him fatally choking one other passenger, Jordan Neely, on the subway circulated on-line that Might.
“We consider in Daniel and are excited to have him as a part of our staff,” David Ulevitch, a accomplice on the agency, wrote in a memo to staff on Tuesday that was relayed to The New York Occasions.
Mr. Ulevitch stated within the memo that the agency plans to show Mr. Penny “the enterprise of investing” and that he’ll assist a number of of the agency’s portfolio corporations. On Andreessen Horowitz’s web site, Mr. Penny is listed as a “deal accomplice.”
Margit Wennmachers, a spokeswoman for the agency, didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark. Thomas Kenniff, Mr. Penny’s lawyer in the course of the trial, stated that he and his accomplice, Steven Raiser, had been “extraordinarily pleased” concerning the information.
“The unjust prosecution not solely put his liberty at jeopardy but additionally risked depriving society of a good and gifted younger man,” Mr. Kenniff stated on Tuesday. “And we all know that he might be occurring to do nice issues as he enters this subsequent chapter of his life.”
Marc Andreessen, a co-founder of the agency, strongly supported President Trump within the final presidential election, saying that the Biden administration had been a hindrance on issues involving cryptocurrency and synthetic intelligence.
Talking on the “Honestly With Bari Weiss” podcast in December, he stated that he had spent about half of his time at Mar-a-Lago since Election Day, serving to President Trump’s staff. Several members of his firm have been a part of the administration’s orbit.
The hiring of Mr. Penny was first reported by The Free Press, of which Ms. Weiss is a founder.
Mr. Penny’s manslaughter case divided New Yorkers, in addition to the nation.
He had been on an uptown F practice on the afternoon of Might 1 when Mr. Neely, who had struggled along with his psychological well being for years, boarded the car, approaching passengers and shouting about eager to return to jail and never caring if he lived or died. Mr. Penny approached Mr. Neely from behind and put him in a chokehold, taking him to the ground.
Mr. Penny advised officers that he had acted to guard others on the practice as a result of he believed that Mr. Neely posed a menace and was poised to kill somebody.
A four-minute video recorded by a bystander shortly unfold on-line, exhibiting the lads struggling on the ground of the subway practice.
Some individuals noticed the confrontation as emblematic of a damaged system that lets susceptible individuals slip by way of the cracks. Mr. Neely had been on an inventory of individuals in New York Metropolis who stand out for the severity of their psychological well being troubles and their resistance to accepting assist. Mr. Neely had additionally been arrested greater than three dozen occasions — principally for minor crimes like turnstile-jumping or trespassing, however no less than 4 occasions on costs of punching individuals, two within the subway system.
For others, what occurred on that Might afternoon was simply the newest in a string of high-profile crimes within the metropolis’s subway system, a lot of which concerned homeless and mentally unwell individuals. The episode, they stated, was a consequence of the town’s incapability to maintain residents secure.
The case shortly grew to become a staple on Fox Information, and Mr. Penny was praised as a hero by some conservatives.
In December, jurors deadlocked on essentially the most severe cost Mr. Penny confronted, manslaughter, and the cost was dismissed by the judge. Jurors then thought-about criminally negligent murder, and in the end acquitted him.
After the decision, Republican figures together with Vice President JD Vance, Donald Trump Jr. and former Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani praised the jury and criticized the district lawyer, Alvin Bragg, for pursuing the case.
“Thank God justice was completed on this case,” Mr. Vance said on social media at the time. “It was a scandal Penny was ever prosecuted within the first place.”
