In December 2023, actor Jonathan Majors was found guilty of assaulting his then-girlfriend Grace Jabbari inside a private car service in Manhattan. The altercation began when Jabbari snatched Majors' cellphone away after spotting a flirty text from another woman. As Majors tried to pry back his phone, Jabbari attempted to protect herself by curling her body away from the actor, but Majors then twisted her arm behind her back, causing “excruciating pain,” grabbed at her fingers and hit her with an open hand. Following the verdict, Marvel Studios, a subsidiary of Disney, decided to drop Majors from their upcoming films.
The two-week trial revealed Majors' “cycle of psychological and emotional abuse” and Jabbari testified at trial over four days, and left the witness stand in tears when she revisited past examples of Majors' alleged violent behavior and rewatched footage of police officers questioning her as she lay half-naked on the floor of Majors' walk-in closet. Surveillance video presented at trial showed Majors lifting up Jabbari and pushing her several times back inside the for-hire black SUV after it pulled over at Centre and Canal streets in Chinatown. Jabbari was treated at Bellevue Hospital the morning after the incident for a gash on her right ear and a fractured right middle finger.The trial also unearthed evidence of Majors' past alarming behavior during his relationship with Jabbari, including that he allegedly begged his ex not to see a doctor after she suffered a head injury in a separate September 2022 incident.
Jurors also heard a recording of Majors lecturing Jabbari that she needed to behave more like the wives of other notable men, like Barack Obama and Martin Luther King Jr., and “make sacrifices for him.” Jabbari testified that Majors was both a “loving” boyfriend who left her handwritten notes early in their relationship — and an erratic partner prone to fits of rage.Prosecutors have their work cut out for them in the Marvel actor Jonathan Majors' assault trial, according to legal experts. Former prosecutors and attorneys told Business Insider that at this point after four days of testimony from Majors' accuser, the case is far from a slam-dunk conviction. Domestic violence cases, they said, are notoriously hard to prove because there could be limited evidence and limited witnesses.
The allegations against Jonathan Majors. Majors' domestic assault trial has been playing out in a Manhattan courtroom. The "Creed III" actor's accuser and ex-girlfriend, Grace Jabbari, finished testifying on Friday after four days on the witness stand where she broke down in tears multiple times and recounted the alleged March 25 attack by Majors in the back seat of a chauffeured car in New York City. While on the stand, Jabbari, a dance instructor from the UK who met Majors in 2021 on the set of Marvel's "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania," also testified about Majors' alleged explosive and controlling behavior. Jabbari says that the assault unfolded after she spotted a text message on Majors' phone from another woman and snatched the device from his hand for a closer look. Majors flipped out, Jabbari testified, twisting her arm behind her back to get the phone back and hitting her in the back of the head so hard that she bled behind her right ear. Majors, 34, faces four charges of misdemeanor assault and harassment in connection to the alleged assault incident and has pleaded not guilty to all charges. He has said he's innocent and accused Jabbari of being violent toward him. His defense attorneys claim Jabbari scratched his face and ripped his jacket, while prosecutors allege Majors broke Jabbari's finger during the incident. No video footage exists of the alleged assault, but the jury in the trial has been shown surveillance footage that prosecutors say shows Majors picking up Jabbari and throwing her "like a football" back into the car after the alleged incident. The jury has also seen photos of Jabbari's swollen finger and bloodied head, but Majors' defense team has suggested that Jabbari's wounds could have been from a fall after she returned to her apartment that night after partying until past 3 a.m.
Neama Rahmani, an attorney and former federal prosecutor, told Business Insider, "It's hard to get a unanimous jury to convict unless you have something more" than the testimony of one accuser. "It can be challenging. These cases are tough without some sort of corroborating evidence," said Rahmani, the president of West Coast Trial Lawyers who has prosecuted many domestic violence cases. "I'm not saying the prosecution can't get there, but it's certainly far from a slam dunk." Mark Bederow, a criminal defense attorney and former Manhattan prosecutor, echoed those remarks, saying "it's never ideal" to have a case rely so heavily on one witness. "You can find someone guilty on one witness and a judge can even instruct a jury that one witness is enough, but it's never ideal," Bederow said. Both Bederow and Rahmani said that they could potentially see the case resulting in a hung jury or an acquittal unless additional evidence comes into play as the trial continues.
The judge overseeing the Majors trial said during jury selection that jurors can convict on the basis of one witness. Meanwhile, the driver of the chauffeured car in which the alleged assault occurred is expected to testify in the trial, but he's not expected to testify that he saw the fight, according to Majors' attorney, Priya Chaudhry. Majors' defense team has said the driver described Jabbari as a "psycho girl."
Domestic violence cases are tough to prove because the violence usually happens behind closed doors and the evidence is usually a 'he said, she said' situation," said Neama Rahmani, an attorney and former federal prosecutor. Victims' rights attorney Michelle Simpson Tuegel added that domestic violence cases "can be complex as communications between the victim and abuser are often difficult for both judges and juries to interpret."
On February 6th, Majors faces up to one year behind bars at his sentencing, though he is more likely to receive a non-jail sentence of probation. It remains to be seen what the outcome of the trial will be, but it's clear that the case against Jonathan Majors is far from a slam dunk.
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