The Marine veteran who strangled a fellow New York City subway passenger to death has been hired by a premier Silicon Valley investment firm – two months after he was staring at a 20-year prison sentence.
Daniel Penny was acquitted of criminally negligent homicide and manslaughter in December 2024 after he grappled Jordan Neely, 30, to the ground and held him around the neck for about six minutes in a chokehold during a frantic subway ride in 2023.
Now, the 26-year-old is working as a deal partner for Andreessen Horowitz in Manhattan on the firm’s American Dynamism team – a department that invests in aerospace, defense, public safety, and education, amongst other sectors, states their website.
Neely’s death was captured entirely on video by other passengers, including Mexican freelance journalist Juan Alberto Vázquez, sparking a national outcry and jaded opinion on whether Penny was a subway hero or a reckless killer.
A memo seen by The Free Press and sent by a general partner at the firm, David Ulevitch, to all employees, confirmed the hire, stating: “He will learn the business of investing and he will work to support our portfolio companies.”
Ulevitch sent the note Tuesday and went so far as to praise Penny’s heroism on that ill-fated day.
“I believe, as I know many of you do, that Daniel acted with courage in a tough situation. He was acquitted of all charges,” said Ulevitch.
“Beyond that, it has always been our policy to evaluate the entire person and not judge them for the worst moment in their entire life.”
He added that Penny’s former experience in the United States Marine Corps would bode well for the firm’s relationships with the Department of Defense and the public safety sector.
But during Penny’s manslaughter trial in November 2024, jurors and Neely’s family were shown multiple clips of the horrific subway incident – footage that left Neely’s father in despair and forced him to step out of the courtroom, reported PBS.
In the incident, on May 1, 2023, Neely, a Black homeless man, stepped onto the subway at the 2nd Avenue station and according to witnesses at the time, began “making verbal threats” to passengers.
As the train arrived at the Broadway-Lafayette stop, Penny leaped into action and placed Neely in the chokehold – until he could no longer breathe and his body became motionless.
Neely had a criminal history of over 40 previous arrests as well as a history of mental illness at the time of his death.
Following the incident, the American public largely turned on Penny, and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin L. Bragg, Jr., indicted him for one count of manslaughter in the second degree and one count of criminally negligent homicide. Penny faced four years in prison for a criminally negligent homicide charge and up to 15 years for manslaughter.
While Penny managed to stay relatively under the radar during the criminal process, he suddenly appeared in December, arm in arms with the then-president-elect Donald Trump and his vice-president-elect, JD Vance at an Army v Navy American football game near Washington DC.
Penny had been acquitted just days before he joined Trump as a guest of honor at the game.
While Penny has little apparent venture capital experience, his recent association with the right aligns with the politics of his new firm’s founders, Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, who supported Trump in the 2024 election.
The pair each donated $2.5 million to a pro-Trump super political action committee. Andreessen Horowitz has been a vocal proponent of a pro-America, defense-friendly, right-leaning form of Silicon Valley investment that’s on the rise in the tech world.
The firm is a backer of Anduril, part of a wave of tech companies increasingly comfortable working with the defense establishment and backing Trump.
