New York. Jonathan Majors was convicted Monday of assaulting his ex-girlfriend after a two-week trial that the actor hoped would salvage his damaged reputation and restore his status as a rising Hollywood star.
A jury in Manhattan found Majors, 34, guilty of assault and harassment. He was also acquitted of another charge of assault and serious harassment. Majors, who was scheduled to stand before the jury as the verdict was read, had no immediate reaction and looked slightly downward.
His sentencing was scheduled for February 6.
The charges arose from a dispute between the actor “Creed III” and his girlfriend Grace Jabbari, which began in the backseat of a chauffeur-driven car and spread to the streets of Manhattan one night last March.
Jabbari, a 30-year-old British dancer, accused Majors of a vehicle attack that caused her “unbearable” pain. She said he hit her on the head with his open hand, twisted her arm behind her back and squeezed her middle finger until it broke.
Majors' lawyers said she was the attacker and claimed she became angry out of jealousy after reading a text message from another woman on her phone. They said Jabbari spread a “fantasy” to bring down the actor, who was just trying to get his phone back and escape safely.
The verdict was a blow to Majors, who was on the verge of becoming a Hollywood star until his arrest in March sent his career into a tailspin.
Once planned to lead the next phase of the Wonder universe like the supervillain Kang the ConquerorAfter the abuse allegations, the majors faced an uncertain future with the lucrative franchise. The actor who attended the Yale School of Dramalost other roles and endorsement deals and saw his critically acclaimed drama Magazine Dreams pulled from its scheduled release earlier this month.
Majors came into the courtroom each morning with a gold-leaf Bible and hugged his relatives and his current girlfriend, actress Meagan Good, before taking his seat. He was expressionless for much of the testimony, wiping away tears as his lawyer Priya Chaudhry urged jurors to “end this nightmare for Jonathan Majors.”
But while Majors sought vindication from the jury, the trial also provided new evidence of his troubled relationship with Jabbari, whom he met two years ago on the set of “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.”
Prosecutors accused Majors of a “cruel and manipulative pattern of abuse” and shared text messages in which the actor pleaded with Jabbari not to seek hospital treatment for a previous head injury. One message warned: “It could lead to an investigation even if you lie and they suspect something.”
They also played audio recordings of Majors calling himself a “great man” and then asking whether Jabbari could meet the high standards set by the spouses of Martin Luther King Jr. and Barack Obama. Majors' lawyers countered that Jabbari secretly filmed her boyfriend as part of a plot to “destroy” her career.
During four days of tearful testimony, Jabbari said Majors was overly controlling and prone to bouts of explosive anger that left her “quite physically frightened.” She broke down on the witness stand as a jury watched security footage of the moment after the backseat confrontation, which prosecutors said showed Majors “abusing” her and pushing her back into the car “as if she were a doll.”
The majors did not comment. But Chaudhry said his client was the victim of “white lies, big lies and little lies” that Jabbari made up to get revenge on an unfaithful partner.
The lawyer cited security footage taken immediately after the attack that showed Majors running away from his girlfriend, who had been stalking him throughout the night. Jabbari then followed a group of strangers he met on the street to a dance club, where he ordered drinks for the group and appeared to have no regard for his injured hand.
“She celebrated in revenge, demanded champagne from the man she was angry with, and gave these strangers luxury champagne that she had purchased with Jonathan's credit card,” Chaudhry alleged.
The next morning, the Majors called police after finding Jabbari unconscious in the closet of his Manhattan penthouse. He was arrested at the scene while Jabbari was taken to hospital for treatment of her ear and hand injuries.
“He called 911 worried about her and her fear of what would happen if a black man came true in America,” Chaudhry said, accusing police and prosecutors of ignoring Major's claims that he was bloodied and scratched during the argument to be taken seriously. .
In her closing argument, prosecutor Kelli Galaway said Majors was following a playbook widely used by perpetrators to reverse the narrative by portraying their victims as attackers.
“This is not a revenge plot to ruin the life or career of the defendant,” Galaway said. “Did they ask you why you’re here?” Because domestic violence is serious.”