Marvel and Creed III actor Jonathan Majors has received some career trajectory altering news after a jury found him guilty if assault and harassment of his former flame, Grace Jabbari. The verdict came down on December 18, with the official charges of one count of reckless assault in the 3rd degree, and a violation for a non-criminal harassment charge.
Majors did get some good news, however: he was acquitted of an additional assault charge and another charge of aggravated harassment. Per CNN, Majors stood stone faced while the jury revealed the verdict. He then walked out of the courtroom with his lawyers, and didn’t say a word to anyone on his way out.
His attorney, Priya Chaudhry, said Majors isn’t done fighting and hinted that he would appeal, saying that the actor “still has faith in the process and looks forward to fully clearing his name.” Prosecutors in the case painted a harrowing picture of the events, saying that Majors chose violence without hesitation when he grabbed Jabbari’s hand, twisted it behind her back and “struck a blow” to her head.
Chaudhry argued that Jabbari was actually the aggressor, an argument hard to sell since Majors is six feet tall and mostly cut muscle. Jabbari, on the other hand, is 5 feet 4 inches. It was always going to be an uphill battle for Majors, no matter what.
Jabbari’s lawyers released a statement saying they were “gratified to see justice served by today’s guilty verdict.”
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.”
The assault conviction carries a maximum penalty of one year in jail, and the harassment charge comes with a maximum of 15 days in jail and a $250 fine. Considering Creed III made more than $100 million, something tells me he’ll be fine.
Majors was originally arrested in March. According to The Cut, the pair met on the set of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. On Nov. 29, Majors and his team of lawyers met with a group of 40 possible jurors, six of whom were tasked with considering the evidence in Majors’ charges. Jury selection began the following Wednesday in New York City.
Majors and his team vehemently denied the charges and he pleaded not guilty to all of them.
According to Variety, most of the first day of the trial was spent debating whether or not to approve Majors’ lawyer’s request to keep some contested evidence concealed and keep it away from public viewing due to the actor’s standing and fame. His lawyer told the judge that disclosing certain evidence and information to the public would cause prejudice and deny Majors a fair trial. He also requested that the hearing remain closed.
Prosecutors requested opening up the evidence, and at the very least, allowing media to be present during the court proceedings.
The idea of prejudice also seemed to be a theme in the trial, with major concern over the potential prejudice from the jury. The judge eventually motioned to seal the trial as well as the evidence but promised that the evidence could become public at some point if it would be acceptable based on the trial.
The judge said that the trial would go on whether or not Jonathan Majors showed up. Majors made media waves when he attended court with his girlfriend, Meagan Good.
Majors has already been released from some projects as a result of assault accusations, and as soon as the verdict came in news broke that he was no longer going to be playing Kang in the upcoming Avengers movies.
Dec. 4
During opening statements, Chaudhry stated that accusations against Majors were an attempt to smear his reputation and career. She also brought up race, saying law enforcement may have arrested him out of bias against Black people.
She also stated that the inciting incident for the charges, which were text messages from another woman on Majors’s phone, led to Jabbari chasing Majors through traffic. They say she later went out for a drink with friends when she couldn’t catch up with him. The prosecution, on the other hand, said that Majors picked her up and threw her in the car.
Defendants say that Jabbari met new friends on the road, went out with them, and took a sleeping pill at the end of the night, falling asleep on the bathroom floor.
Dec. 5
The trial began in full on December 5 with opening statements from Majors’ ex-girlfriend Grace Jabbari, according to People. Lawyers told the jury about the nature of their relationship, saying that he was very romantic and attentive when it first began. According to her, he asked for her number on the set of Quantomania, and often wrote her love letters when they first started dating. Her attorney stated that soon into the relationship his behavior changed, and he began exhibiting patterns of abuse and manipulation.
Jabbari later testified that the incident that led to his arrest began when she saw flirty text messages from another woman on his phone. She said that there were multiple incidents like this one when she was afraid to bring up an issue out of fear that it would bring out his “rage.”
Jabbari admitted that she began recording and photographing her and Majors’s arguments, out of fear for her safety. She presented photos and videos of him yelling at her and throwing things in their house as evidence and even said he would threaten suicide after their arguments so that she wouldn’t tell anyone.
According to Jabbari, when she saw the text messages from another woman and took his phone he twisted her arm and hit her on the back of the head, leading to his arrest in March. Majors and his team continue to claim innocence.
Dec. 6
Jabbari took the stand again on the second day of trial, reiterating that Majors is fully aware of what he did to her. She said during their dispute in March he twisted her arm, fractured her finger, and slapped her across the face. After the fight, she said she locked herself in the bedroom door and woke up with emergency responders around her.
Majors had allegedly called the police because he could not get into the room, and law enforcement believed Jabbari was going to harm herself. She said that she woke up with blood behind her ears from being hit in the head by Majors.
She told the jury that she was afraid to say too much about what had happened, but alluded to it as much as possible, leading to Majors’s arrest. Even while she was in the hospital, she said, she felt that she should have lied to keep Majors out of trouble.
Dec. 7
On Thursday, the Majors’ team presented Jabbari with footage of her at a nightclub the night of the alleged attack. The footage showed her dancing with friends, to which Jabbari said she was just trying to have a nice time and forget about what had happened, not focusing on the pain from her injuries.
One of Majors’ lawyers claimed that some of the footage shows Jabbari hitting her head on the DJ booth and running into the wall, alluding to those incidents as the reasons for her injuries, rather than Majors.
Dec. 8
According to People, on the fourth day of testimony, Jabbari and her team provided text message where Majors admitted to being violent with Jabbari. He allegedly said, “I fear you have no perspective of what could happen if you go to the hospital.” Jabbari told Majors in the messages from September 2022 that she should not blame him for her head injury, and that she should tell the doctor she bumped her head.
The messages also contained Majors threatening to kill himself, even saying he was a “horrible monster of a man not capable of love.”
Dec. 11
The driver who allegedly drove the couple on the night of the incident took the stand on Monday. According to People, the driver, Naveed Sarwar, stated that Majors wasn’t doing anything when he first saw the couple saying that, “She was doing everything.”
When asked if he saw Majors hitting Jabbari he said that while he saw a lot of things happening between the couple that night, he actually saw Jabbari hitting Majors. Sarwar also shared that Majors was trying to get rid of Jabbari, even attempting to “throw her out of the car.”
Dr. William Chiang also took the stand. He was the attending physician at the hospital the night Jabbari came in for her ear and finger injuries. However, he told prosecution that her injuries were consistent with abuse but upon cross-examination told the defense that her injuries were “inconsistent” with the alleged cause of the injuries.
Dec. 12
Two NYPD officers who were president the night of the incident testified on Tuesday, according to Variety. They shared with the jury that despite being called by Majors out of fear that Jabbari would commit suicide or had overdosed, they found no evidence of pill bottles or drugs when they got there.
They shared with the jury that Jabbari was confused about where she was and what was happening when they got to her, and that they found blood on the bed where she was. One of the offers testified that he believed Jabbari was hit in the head several times and that Majors grabbed her throat.
Dec. 13
The defense called forward medical expert Dr. Tammy Weiner as a witness on Wednesday, according to ABC. She testified that she did not see evidence that Jabbari had suffered a strong blow to her ear lobe based on the lack of bruising and swelling.
The court also released a recording on Wednesday of Majors telling Jabbari to be more like Coretta Scott King and Michelle Obama, calling himself a “GREAT man,” despite his temper, saying that he was doing great things for his culture and the world. In the phone recording he goes on to lecture Jabbari for coming home drunk, and not being present and supportive.
Dec. 14
Closing arguments took place on Thursday, per NPR. Jabbari’s lawyer argued that her client had protected Majors from legal repercussions for a long time, that being the reason it took her so long to speak up or seek medical attention. She even stated that Jabbari felt “personally responsible for [Majors’] well-being.
Majors’ team stated that Jabbari was simply angry to find out that he had cheated on her and went out “revenge partying” the night of the incident. She said that Jabbari wanted retribution for their failed relationship.
Jurors were sent to deliberate and returned the verdict on Dec. 18.
Published: Dec 18, 2023 06:31 pm