By . Daily Mail Reporter . UPDATED: . 18:28 EST, 30 July 2012 . A military jury has found an Army sergeant not guilty of negligent homicide in the death of an Army private who killed himself in Afghanistan. Sgt. Adam Holcomb was the first of eight soldiers . to be court-martialed for the alleged racial hazing of Pvt. Danny Chen, . who committed suicide last October. The infantryman from New York City . shot himself in a guard tower in southern Afghanistan after what after what investigators say were weeks of physical . abuse, humiliation and racial slurs. Acquitted: U.S. Army Sgt. Adam Holcomb, right, of Youngstown, Ohio, speaks with his defense attorney Capt. Dennis Hernon as they leave the Fort Bragg Courthouse on Tuesday July 24, 2012, in Fayetteville, N.C. Death: Private Danny Chen, 19, of New York, was found dead in a guard tower at Combat Outpost Palace on October 3 after apparently committing suicide . Holcomb was . found guilty on Monday on two lesser charges of maltreatment of a . subordinate and assault. He faces a maximum of two-and-a-half years in . prison. The 10-member jury deliberated for two hours in military court at Fort Bragg in eastern North Carolina on Monday after hearing closing arguments. Throughout the trial, the defense . painted Chen as an incompetent soldier disowned by his family. Prosecutors said Holcomb abused Chen and drove him to suicide. A native New Yorker of Chinese descent, Chen had been in Afghanistan only two months when he shot himself in a . guardhouse at a remote outpost in Afghanistan's Kandahar province. Justice: Sergent Adam Holcomb (L), looks on during court-martial proceedings at Fort Bragg, North Carolina in this artist's rendering on July 24, 2012 . Family: Su Zhen Chen, second from left, mother of Pvt. Danny Chen, leaves the Fort Bragg Courthouse on Tuesday July 24, 2012 during the first day of trial of Sgt. Adam Holcomb . Remembered: Danny Chen is pictured with his family in an emotional video which features his friends and relatives asking: 'What happened to Danny?' Mr Chen's relatives said he was . brutally hazed during training because he was Chinese-American. They said investigators told them that he was subjected to numerous . racial slurs and forced to do excessive sit-ups, push-ups, runs and . sprints carrying sandbags as punishment for not being as physically fit . as the rest of the platoon. On the day that he eventually ended . his life, he had forgotten his helmet and his water when he went to . report to the guardhouse. His superiors forced him to crawl over 100 . meters of gravel with all of his equipment when he returned, all the . while having other soldiers throw rocks at him. Sadness: A portrait of U.S. Army Private Danny Chen is displayed during his funeral procession in New York on October 13 after his death in Afghanistan . Grieving: The casket of Private Danny Chen is carried by an honour guard during a funeral procession in New York in October last year . State Senator Daniel Squadron, who . represents the New York neighbourhood where Chen grew up, spoke about the . teen on the state Senate floor in February. Squadron said.'The tragedy that . befell him, the experience that he had serving our country, is one that . no person in this country should ever have, period,' 'What those who hazed Danny Chen did . is they disrespected every one of their brothers and sisters in the . armed forces,' he added.
Private Danny Chen, 19, was found dead in October .
Chen suffered racial and physical abuse for weeks .
By . Daily Mail Reporter . UPDATED: . 18:28 EST, 30 July 2012 . A military jury has found an Army sergeant not guilty of negligent homicide in the death of an Army private who killed himself in Afghanistan. Sgt. Adam Holcomb was the first of eight soldiers . to be court-martialed for the alleged racial hazing of Pvt. Danny Chen, . who committed suicide last October. The infantryman from New York City . shot himself in a guard tower in southern Afghanistan after what after what investigators say were weeks of physical . abuse, humiliation and racial slurs. Acquitted: U.S. Army Sgt. Adam Holcomb, right, of Youngstown, Ohio, speaks with his defense attorney Capt. Dennis Hernon as they leave the Fort Bragg Courthouse on Tuesday July 24, 2012, in Fayetteville, N.C. Death: Private Danny Chen, 19, of New York, was found dead in a guard tower at Combat Outpost Palace on October 3 after apparently committing suicide . Holcomb was . found guilty on Monday on two lesser charges of maltreatment of a . subordinate and assault. He faces a maximum of two-and-a-half years in . prison. The 10-member jury deliberated for two hours in military court at Fort Bragg in eastern North Carolina on Monday after hearing closing arguments. Throughout the trial, the defense . painted Chen as an incompetent soldier disowned by his family. Prosecutors said Holcomb abused Chen and drove him to suicide. A native New Yorker of Chinese descent, Chen had been in Afghanistan only two months when he shot himself in a . guardhouse at a remote outpost in Afghanistan's Kandahar province. Justice: Sergent Adam Holcomb (L), looks on during court-martial proceedings at Fort Bragg, North Carolina in this artist's rendering on July 24, 2012 . Family: Su Zhen Chen, second from left, mother of Pvt. Danny Chen, leaves the Fort Bragg Courthouse on Tuesday July 24, 2012 during the first day of trial of Sgt. Adam Holcomb . Remembered: Danny Chen is pictured with his family in an emotional video which features his friends and relatives asking: 'What happened to Danny?' Mr Chen's relatives said he was . brutally hazed during training because he was Chinese-American. They said investigators told them that he was subjected to numerous . racial slurs and forced to do excessive sit-ups, push-ups, runs and . sprints carrying sandbags as punishment for not being as physically fit . as the rest of the platoon. On the day that he eventually ended . his life, he had forgotten his helmet and his water when he went to . report to the guardhouse. His superiors forced him to crawl over 100 . meters of gravel with all of his equipment when he returned, all the . while having other soldiers throw rocks at him. Sadness: A portrait of U.S. Army Private Danny Chen is displayed during his funeral procession in New York on October 13 after his death in Afghanistan . Grieving: The casket of Private Danny Chen is carried by an honour guard during a funeral procession in New York in October last year . State Senator Daniel Squadron, who . represents the New York neighbourhood where Chen grew up, spoke about the . teen on the state Senate floor in February. Squadron said.'The tragedy that . befell him, the experience that he had serving our country, is one that . no person in this country should ever have, period,' 'What those who hazed Danny Chen did . is they disrespected every one of their brothers and sisters in the . armed forces,' he added.
abuse, humiliation and racial slurs. Acquitted: in Fayetteville, N.C. Death: Private Danny Chen, 19, of New York, was found dead in a guard tower