
A New York jury found Marvel actor Jonathan Majors guilty of assault in the third degree and guilty of harassment.
The verdict was reached by a six-person jury after roughly over four hours of deliberation spread across three days. Jonathan Majors, wearing a grey suit and black dress shirt and tie, sat with his attorneys, with family members and his girlfriend, Meagan Good, behind him as the verdict was read. He was found not guilty of one of the counts in assault in the third degree and not guilty of aggravated harassment in second degree.
Majors faced four charges of assault, aggravated harassment and harassment after he called 911 on March 25, when he said he found his ex-partner, Grace Jabbari, unconscious in their apartment. Police arrested Majors after finding apparent injuries on Jabbari, including a laceration behind her ear and a bruised and fractured finger. Majors pleaded not guilty to all charges.
The first three charges are misdemeanor offenses and related to alleged incidents in the car. The fourth charge of harassment, which is a violation (the most minor offense among the charges), relates to an allegation that Majors threw Jabbari back into the car as she tried to exit. The defense alleged that he placed her back in the car to stop her from running into traffic. That action is captured on surveillance video, while the altercation inside the car was not captured on camera.
The charges against Majors were brought by the state of New York, rather than by Jabbari herself. The case was a criminal trial, rather than civil, meaning the burden of proof is higher for the jury who had to find proof of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt on each charge.
The arrest has already had implications on what had been the biggest year in Majors’ career, which included starring roles in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, Creed III and Loki season two. In the wake of his arrest both his publicity firm, the Lede Company, and managers at Management 360 dropped him and the Disney-owned Searchlight Features removed Magazine Dreams from its release calendar.
During the trial, prosecutors approached this as a case of domestic violence, while the defense repeatedly called Jabbari’s credibility into question and positioned it as an ex’s revenge. Majors appeared in person every day of the two-week trial, with Good, and family members in attendance. He did not testify during the trial and showed little emotion, except for tearing up during closing arguments from his attorney, Priya Chaudhry, as she said ““His fear of what happens when a Black man in America calls 911 came true.”