Jonathan Majors was one of Hollywood's most promising talents. On Monday, however, the 34-year-old actor was found guilty in a Manhattan court of beating Grace Jabbari, his ex-partner. A six-person jury spent two weeks hearing testimony of how the star of Creed III and "Ant Man and the Wasp: Quantumania" assaulted and harassed his then-girlfriend, a 30-year-old British dancer, earlier this year. Majors and his defense had hoped that the court process would serve to clear the performer's reputation. Instead, he will hear the sentence against him on Feb. 6.
After the verdict was announced, Marvel has fired Majors, who played Kang the Conqueror in the latest installment of the microscopic hero. This closes the doors to the comic book company's film universe. The artist was also acquitted of other charges of aggravated assault and harassment in a different case.
The scandal dogging Majors erupted in March. Later that month, the actor was arrested in New York after Jabbari filed a domestic violence lawsuit. The dancer, who testified over four days on the stand, accused her boyfriend of hitting her on the forehead with an open hand in the back seat of a car. The actor also twisted her arm behind her back and squeezed her finger until it was broken. This news came just days after the actor received rave reviews following the premiere of Magazine Dreams at Sundance. The release of the film, the first he produced, was canceled by Disney after the indictment.
Two weeks of trial showed the dynamic of the couple, who met two years ago during the filming of the Marvel Studios movie. Prosecutors presented evidence that purported to demonstrate the actor's "cruel and manipulative" pattern. One of the elements that came to light during the process was an audio recorded in September 2022 by Jabbari. In it, Majors was heard reprimanding her for her conduct. "How dare you come home drunk and disrupt the tranquility of our home when we have a plan," says the actor. "I'm a great man. I'm doing great things, not just for myself but for my culture and for the world," says Majors, who asks his partner to behave at the level of the wives of great men such as Martin Luther King or Barack Obama.
Jabbari's legal team showed jurors text messages in which Majors displayed manipulative behavior. In one of them, he asked her not to go to the hospital for treatment of a previous head wound for fear of the questions the doctor would ask her. "This could lead to an investigation, even if you lie and they suspect something," the Texas-born artist wrote. "I won't go to the hospital if you don't feel confident that I will. I promise I would never mention you, but I understand your fear," Jabbari replied at the time. In the same conversation, Majors threatened to commit suicide, as he did not feel loved at times.
Majors arrived at court every day with a Bible in his hand and accompanied by his new partner, actress Meagan Good. . His defense initially said Jabbari was the aggressor. In March, the actor even shared with NBC where she admitted to using physical force. The legal team argued that she had had a jealous fit after Majors received a text message from another woman on her mobile. The lawyers said that he only tried to recover his phone, because the dancer and actress had "the fantasy" of ending the actor's career. During the trial, lawyers claimed that Jabbari had lied on several occasions to get revenge on a partner who had been unfaithful to him.
A video was presented during the trial showing Majors fleeing from Jabbari, who was chasing him through the streets of New York. According to the actor's lawyers, the dancer later that night followed a group of strangers to a nightclub, where she bought them drinks. "She was partying trying to get revenge and paying for champagne with the credit card of the man she was angry with," said Majors' attorney, Priya Chaudhry. She said her client was the one who called police the next morning when the artist found Jabbari unconscious in a closet. Police then arrested Majors and sent the dancer to the hospital. He was released hours later with a restraining order.