A Manhattan jury found Jonathan Majors guilty on Monday of two misdemeanor counts of harassment and assault, but acquitted him on two other counts.
In the domestic assault trial, the Marvel actor was found not guilty on one count of of intentional assault in the third degree and aggravated harassment in the second degree against his ex-girlfriend Grace Jabbari. Majors, wearing a dark gray suit and seated with his attorneys and current girlfriend Meagan Goode, did not display a reaction when the verdict was read.
Judge Michael Gaffey set a sentencing date of Feb. 6. Majors faces up to a year in jail, but he could also be sentenced to probation.
The two-week-long trial resumed in a lower Manhattan courtroom as the six-person jury requested to hear the definition of harassment in the second degree, which is when a person is guilty of “intent to harass, annoy or alarm” another person — “he or she strikes, shoves, kicks or otherwise subjects such other person to physical contact, or attempts or threatens to do the same.”
Before making its verdict, the jury also asked to review surveillance footage, as well as testimony from a women who attended a nightclub with Jabbari after the alleged assault.
In March, the actor was arrested in New York City after he allegedly assaulted Jabbari in the backseat of a private vehicle. Jabbari, a choreographer who met Majors on the set of Marvel’s “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania,” testified she grabbed Majors’ phone after seeing a text message from another woman that read, “Wish I were kissing you right now.” Jabbari described in her testimony that as Majors attempted to retrieve his phone, she felt “a hard blow” across her head that resulted in bruising, swelling and substantial pain.
Prosecutor Kelli Galloway alleges that Majors was manipulative and controlling throughout their two-year relationship, which culminated on March 25 after the altercation in the car. Jury members were shown prior text messages between Jabbari and Majors where he had threatened suicide over a disagreement and dissuaded his ex-girlfriend from going to the hospital to treat a head wound.
Jabbari, 30, testified she did not want to involve the police. It was Majors, not Jabbari, who called 911 the next morning out of concern for Jabbari’s mental state, according to Chaudhry. Majors had spent the prior night in a hotel and returned to their Chelsea residence to find Jabbari asleep on the floor.
“What this really boils down to is four simple words: control, domination, manipulation and abuse,” Galloway told the jury in her closing statement. “[Those are the] tactics used by those who commit domestic violence against partners, against Grace.”
Majors’ defense attorney Priya Chaudhry has alleged that it was Jabbari who assaulted Majors in the vehicle that night — not the other way around. The defense also argued that Jabbari fabricated the allegations to get back at Majors after their breakup. In her closing argument, Chaudhry called Jabbari a “liar” who “bends reality.”
Last week, the driver who was in the car on the night of the alleged incident testified, through an Urdu interpreter, that Majors “was not doing anything” to Jabbari in the vehicle. But while Majors was trying to get out of the car, he was “trying to throw her in,” the driver told jurors: “I do remember [Majors] was pushing her back into the car to get rid of her.”
The defense argued that Majors’ career in Hollywood had been on the rise before the arrest. The Emmy-nominated actor appeared in two 2023 tentpoles, “Ant-Man 3” and “Creed III,” as well as the indie “Magazine Dreams,” which was acquired by Searchlight Pictures at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. The studio removed the project from its release schedule in the wake of the allegations.
As part of the fallout, Majors has been dropped by his PR team and management and cut from the film “The Man in My Basement.” Majors still has a major role, as the villainous Kang the Conqueror, in Disney’s Marvel Cinematic Universe.