Daniel Penny, a Marine veteran acquitted on a charge of criminally negligent homicide in Manhattan in December, has been employed by considered one of 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 keeping 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 Could.
“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 Instances.
Mr. Ulevitch mentioned 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, mentioned that he and his accomplice, Steven Raiser, had been “extraordinarily joyful” in regards to the information.
“The unjust prosecution not solely put his liberty at jeopardy but in addition risked depriving society of an honest and proficient younger man,” Mr. Kenniff mentioned on Tuesday. “And we all know that he can 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 mentioned 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 prepare on the afternoon of Could 1 when Mr. Neely, who had struggled together with his psychological well being for years, boarded the car, approaching passengers and shouting about desirous 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 informed officers that he had acted to guard others on the prepare as a result of he believed that Mr. Neely posed a risk and was poised to kill somebody.
A four-minute video recorded by a bystander rapidly unfold on-line, displaying the boys struggling on the ground of the subway prepare.
Some folks noticed the confrontation as emblematic of a damaged system that lets weak folks slip by the cracks. Mr. Neely had been on a listing 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 instances — principally for minor crimes like turnstile-jumping or trespassing, however at the least 4 instances on expenses of punching folks, two within the subway system.
For others, what occurred on that Could afternoon was simply the most recent in a string of high-profile crimes within the metropolis’s subway system, lots of which concerned homeless and mentally ailing folks. The episode, they mentioned, was a consequence of town’s incapacity to maintain residents secure.
The case rapidly 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 critical cost Mr. Penny confronted, manslaughter, and the cost was dismissed by the judge. Jurors then thought of criminally negligent murder, and finally 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 carried out on this case,” Mr. Vance said on social media at the time. “It was a scandal Penny was ever prosecuted within the first place.”
