A New York jury found the actor Jonathan Majors guilty of two misdemeanor charges of assault and harassment against his then girlfriend in March of this year.
Majors looked slightly downward and showed no immediate reaction as the verdict was read. He declined to comment as he left the courthouse.
The verdict marks the end of a high-profile case that began with Majors’s arrest on 26 March.
The night before, the Creed III star and his girlfriend at the time, Grace Jabbari, 30, an actor and dancer, got into an intense altercation while riding in an SUV on their way to Majors’s apartment in Chelsea.
Jury CONVICTS actor Jonathan Majors on two domestic assault charges in split verdict @CourthouseNews pic.twitter.com/iPVAk6a1VP
— JOSH RUSSELL (@jruss_jruss) December 18, 2023
Jabbari testified in court that things turned physical after she noticed romantic texts on Majors’s phone. When Jabbari grabbed the device from his hands, Majors twisted her arm in a position that caused her “excruciating pain” and struck her in the head, Jabbari told jurors. Jabbari also accused Majors of squeezing her middle finger until it fractured.
Majors then took the phone back, got out of the vehicle and took off running through the streets of lower Manhattan as Jabbari chased behind him, street surveillance footage presented during the trial showed.
He faced four misdemeanor charges for misdemeanor assault, aggravated assault and harassment and faced up to a year in prison if convicted on all counts. He was ultimately convicted of third-degree assault and second-degree harassment.
Alvin Bragg, Manhattan’s district attorney, said in a statement released on Monday that the evidence presented against Majors showed a “a cycle of psychological and emotional abuse, and escalating patterns of coercion”.
“Today, a jury determined that pattern of abuse and coercion culminated with Mr Majors assaulting and harassing his girlfriend,” the statement continued.
In contrast, Priya Chaudhry, who represented Majors argued that the jury did not, in fact, believe Jabbari’s story and did not believe that Majors intentionally hurt her, Chaudhry said in a statement that also came out on Monday. Chaudhry said that Majors “still has faith in the process and looks forward to fully clearing his name”.
“We are disappointed, however, that despite not believing Ms Jabbari, the jury nevertheless found that Mr Majors was somehow reckless while she was attacking him. Mr Majors is grateful to God, his family, his friends and his fans for their love and support during these harrowing eight months.”
Majors filed a countersuit against Jabbari in June, alleging that he was actually the one who was assaulted after Jabbari saw texts from another woman on his phone. But prosecutors declined to file charges against her.
During the trial, Jabbari detailed the couple’s sometimes tumultuous and volatile relationship, which began when they met in August 2021 on the set of Marvel’s Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, in which Major starred as the villain Kang the Conqueror. Jabbari was his movement coach.
In 2021, Majors allegedly chided her for bringing up an ex’s dog, and in the summer of 2022 Jabbari recalls the actor berated her via text for attending the Glastonbury music festival in England. She added that Majors, who did not testify during the trial, would threaten to kill himself after conflicts. Over four days of tearful testimony, Jabbari said Majors was excessively controlling and prone to fits of explosive rage that left her afraid “physically quite a lot”.
“I felt like I had to keep a lot of secrets from everyone,” she said. “I felt very isolated. It was confusing. I felt scared of him but quite dependent on him.” Their relationship continued because “I loved him,” she told the jurors.
Majors is set to be sentenced on 6 February and faces one year in prison for the assault charge.
Associated Press contributed reporting
