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As the second week of Jonathan Major's domestic violence trial begins, the Loki actor's phone and text messages have become central to both the prosecution and defense.
To put it bluntly, the Manhattan district attorney's office and the defense team have very different views on Majors' alleged attack in late March on his then-long-time girlfriend. However, both sides admitted today, and made it clear before the trial began on December 4, that what happened that night arose from Grace Jabbari seeing text messages on the actor's phone from another woman that said: “I wish I kissed you.” ”
Things escalated quickly after that.
Today, as Majors sat at the defense table, the driver of the car the duo was in when Jabbari saw those texts told her version of what happened.
“The girl became very angry,” driver Naveed Sanwar told the court on Monday, assisted by an Urdu interpreter. “The boy wanted to get rid of the girl and opened the door,” Sanwar said of the argument between Majors and Jabbari over the text message and the infidelity. Through the interpreter, Sanwar added that he believed “the girl would have hit the boy – because of the way she fought and the sounds she made.”
A jury of three men and three women will decide whether Majors is guilty of a misdemeanor charge stemming from a late-night incident in and around the actor's Chelsea apartment on March 25 with Grace Jabbari. NYPD officers who responded to the scene at Majors' residence found a number of marks, “a laceration” and a broken finger on Jabbari and arrested Majors. On Monday, Dr. William Chang testified how he treated Jabbari later that day at New York's Bellevue Hospital and how her injuries were related to someone being hit.
“He said, 'Leave me alone.' “I have to go,” driver Sanwar told the jury and Judge Michael Gaffey on Monday. “He didn't do anything, she did.” That's the exact opposite of what Assistant District Attorney Michael Perez said in his opening statement last week, when he referred to Majors throwing Jabbari back into the car “like a soccer ball.” threw. In her own testimony last week, Jabbari said that when she woke up the next day she “felt like I had been hit by a bus.”
Through the interpreter, Sanwar admitted today that he could not remember how many times Majors “pushed” Jabbari to try to get her back into the vehicle. The driver was allowed to leave after a very brief cross-examination by the defense.
The actor has always said he was innocent and that Jabbari, against whom Majors filed a cross-complaint in June, was the attacker. If Majors is found guilty by the jury, he could face up to one year in prison in the Empire State.
In this context, the Majors' defense suffered a serious blow on Friday when texts were read out in court in which the actor managed to persuade Jabbari not to go to hospital in the United Kingdom in September 2022 due to a head injury. “They're going to ask you questions, and since I don't think you're really protecting us, even if you lie and they suspect something, it could lead to an investigation,” Majors told his then-girlfriend.
“I will tell the doctor I hit my head when I leave,” said a reply message from Jabbari to Majors. “I'll try for another day but I can't sleep and need stronger painkillers,” she continued.
“Why should I tell them what really happened when it is clear that I want to be with you,” Jabbari assured her then-lover, who last year appeared to be the cause of the head injury in question.
“I am a monster, a terrible man,” the actor, who was then filming the second season of Disney+'s Loki in the UK, later added on September 22, 2022. “I'm going to kill myself soon.” “I've already arranged things,” Majors threatened, as he had done several times before.
Although a filing from the DA's office in October referred to “medical records from London relating to an incident in September 2022,” no further comment was ever made on the matter. In late November, Judge Gaffey sealed evidence he openly described as “prejudicial and inflammatory” against Majors. As previously reported, Deadline has learned that the sealed documents in question contain information about possible past incidents involving the actor in both the US and the UK.
It was defense attorney Priya Chaudhry's aggressive overreach toward the testifying and sometimes tearful Jabbari on Dec. 8 that “opened the door” and led to Judge Gaffey suddenly unsealing the texts – first read out loud by Jabbar and the jury and the audience Then, after her own crying prevented her from continuing, Assistant District Attorney Kelli Galaway.
The texts appeared to support prosecutors' claim in their opening statement that “Majors exhibited a cruel and manipulative pattern of abuse toward Jabbari even before the March 2023 incident in NYC that led to his arrest and this trial.” Jabbari herself, who has been on the witness stand since December 5, has testified that there were numerous instances in which Majors allegedly abused her emotionally, verbally and physically.
“I was just afraid of the consequences,” Jabbari told prosecutors last week about why she didn't immediately tell authorities what allegedly happened between her and the Majors in March. “I still wanted to protect him.”
It is still unclear whether Majors will testify in his own defense in what is expected to be the final week of the trial.