Jonathan Majors Convicted on (2) counts of assualt
The verdict was reached Monday by a six-person jury after over four hours of deliberation spread across three days. The actor is set to be sentenced on Feb. 6.
BY CAITLIN HUSTON
DECEMBER 18, 2023 11:57AM
A New York jury found Marvel actor Jonathan Majors guilty of reckless assault in the third degree and guilty of harassment.
The verdict was reached by a six-person jury after roughly over four hours of deliberation spread across three days. Majors, wearing a gray suit and black dress shirt and tie, stood with his attorneys, as the verdict was read, with family members and his girlfriend, Meagan Good, behind him. Sentencing is set for Feb. 6. The charges, a misdemeanor and a violation, carry a sentence of up to one year in prison.
On two other charges, he was found not guilty of intentional assault in the third degree and not guilty of aggravated harassment in second degree.
In a statement after the verdict, the actor’s attorney, Priya Chaudhry, said Majors “looks forward to fully clearing his name,” implying he may appeal. She continued, “Mr. Majors is grateful to God, his family, his friends, and his fans for their love and support during these harrowing eight months.”
Shortly after the verdict was read, Marvel Studios dropped the actor as Kang the Conqueror from its upcoming Marvel Cinematic Universe films.
In total, Majors faced four charges of assault, aggravated harassment and harassment after he called 911 on March 25, when he said he found his ex-partner, Grace Jabbari, unconscious in their apartment. Police arrested Majors after finding apparent injuries on Jabbari, including a laceration behind her ear and a bruised and fractured finger. Majors pleaded not guilty to all charges.
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Jabbari, who took the witness stand for the first four days of the trial, said Majors had caused the injuries during an altercation in the car several hours before. She testified that the alleged incident occurred in a private car when she saw a text on Majors’ phone that read: “Oh how I wish to be kissing you.” Jabbari has said she tried to snatch the phone from Majors, who then pried her finger from the phone, grabbed her arm and right hand, twisted her forearm and struck her head to get the phone away from her.
The first three charges are misdemeanor offenses and related to alleged incidents in the car. The fourth charge of harassment, which is a violation (the most minor offense among the charges), relates to an allegation that Majors threw Jabbari back into the car as she tried to exit. The defense argued that he placed her back in the car to stop her from running into traffic. That action is captured on surveillance video, while the altercation inside the car was not captured on camera.
The charges against Majors were brought by the state of New York, rather than by Jabbari herself. The case was a criminal trial, as opposed civil, meaning the burden of proof is higher for the jury, who had to find proof of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt on each charge.
The arrest already had implications on what had been the biggest year in Majors’ career, which included starring roles in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, Creed III and Loki season two. In the wake of his arrest, both his publicity firm, the Lede Company, and managers at Management 360 dropped him and the Disney-owned Searchlight Features removed Magazine Dreams from its release calendar.
In a statement after the verdict, Ross Kramer, an attorney for Jabbari, said they hope the guilty verdict inspires other victims of assault.
“We are gratified to see justice served by today’s guilty verdict,” the statement read. “Ms. Jabbari testified publicly and truthfully, even though reliving these traumatic events on the witness stand was obviously painful. We are grateful to the jurors and the Judge for their attention and patience, and to the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office for their hard work and support.
“Ms. Jabbari’s resolve to see this case through to the end demonstrates her tremendous strength and resilience. Unfortunately, for every survivor like Ms. Jabbari who comes forward to hold their abuser accountable, there are many others who believe that they cannot. We hope that her actions will inspire other survivors to speak their truth and seek justice,” Kramer’s statement added.
During the trial, prosecutors approached this as a case of domestic violence, while the defense repeatedly called Jabbari’s credibility into question and positioned it as an ex’s revenge. Majors appeared in person every day of the two-week trial, with Good and family members in attendance. He did not testify during the trial and showed little emotion, except for tearing up during closing arguments from his attorney Chaudhry, as she said, “His fear of what happens when a Black man in America calls 911 came true.”
As part of his defense, Chaudhry claimed Jabbari was the aggressor in the car, pointing to the fact that Majors’ coat was ripped and that Jabbari is seen on surveillance video running after Majors down the street after the initial alleged altercation in the car. Jabbari said that she ran after him to find out who sent the text.
Chaudhry further argued Jabbari was uninjured after leaving the car and had gone “revenge partying” at a club, where she bought champagne on Majors’ credit card, while still being able to use her right hand, which she said had been injured. Jabbari testified that she had sought help from three strangers on the street after the first altercation in the car, and they then invited her to a club, which she accepted in order to seek comfort after the alleged incident.
Chaudhry implied that Jabbari had injured herself later, after drinking throughout the evening, and then returning to their shared apartment and taking sleeping pills. Majors, who had stayed at a hotel after leaving the car, returned to the apartment in the morning and called 911 after reporting that he found Jabbari unconscious.
In addition to the video surveillance footage, which also included footage of Jabbari at the club, evidence shown to the jury by prosecutors included photos Jabbari took of her bruised hand and laceration behind her ear while back at the apartment and body-camera footage from officers when they arrived.
Prosecutors also introduced a series of texts into evidence, which could prove damaging to Majors’ reputation, as they pertained to several alleged incidents that happened during the course of Majors and Jabbari’s relationship. Prosecutors alleged a pattern of abuse, which they said explained why Jabbari had not immediately told police officers that Majors had caused the injuries.
In one of the texts, sent between Majors and Jabbari in September 2022, Majors appeared to dissuade Jabbari from seeking medical attention for an injury (how she sustained the injury was not discussed). “They will ask you questions, and as I don’t think you actually protect us, it could lead to an investigation even if you do lie and they suspect something,” Majors wrote.
These texts were initially deemed inadmissible but then were able to be shown by prosecutors to jury members following a line of cross-examination questions from Majors’ defense team that Judge Michael Gaffey said “lacked specificity.”
Prosecutors also played a recording Jabbari said she made of Majors during an earlier argument in September 2022, in which the actor admonished Jabbari for drinking and then returning to their home with her friend, and said she needs to live up to the standards of Coretta Scott King and Michelle Obama and adding of himself, “I am a great man.”
Members of the jury were instructed to view this as background information, rather than evidence of propensity to commit a crime.
After the verdict was reached, Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg weighed in: “At the Manhattan D.A.’s Office, we are committed to centering survivors in all of our work. The evidence presented throughout this trial illustrated a cycle of psychological and emotional abuse, and escalating patterns of coercion far too common across the many intimate partner violence cases we see each and every day. Today, a jury determined that pattern of abuse and coercion culminated with Mr. Majors assaulting and harassing his girlfriend. We thank the jury for its service and the survivor for bravely telling her story despite having to relive her trauma on the stand.”
