Jonathan Majors Convicted in Domestic Assault Trial | Vanity Fair

Penned by Savannah Walsh

Jonathan Majors, the acclaimed 34-year-old actor and noted for his performances in Creed III and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, has been declared guilty on two counts but acquitted on another two in his domestic abuse trial. The jury reached their verdict on Monday after approximately four hours spread across three days, reports The Hollywood Reporter. Majors had denied misdemeanor charges of assault and harassment related to an alleged domestic disagreement with ex-love interest Grace Jabbari in March.

The actor was found guilty on the charges of third degree reckless assault and harassment. On the other hand, he was acquitted of charges of third degree intentional assault and second degree aggravated harassment. The harassment offense is a minor one with the other three being misdemeanors. Majors could face a sentence of up to a year, with sentencing set for February 6.

Majors was taken into custody on March 25 after Jabbari, who was his partner at the time, sought treatment at a hospital for “minor wounds to her head and neck,” as per the NYPD statement. The prosecution says that Jabbari was in the backseat with Majors when she took his phone upon seeing a text reading, “Wish I was kissing you right now,” sent by a woman listed as “Cleopatra” in Majors’s phone. 

In June, Majors reported a counter domestic incident against Jabbari as the case moved forward. As initially reported by Insider in the same month, Majors claimed to the authorities that she was excessively “drunk and hysterical” on the night in question and caused him pain and bleeding after scratching and hitting him. Jabbari was taken in by the NYPD, but the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office didn't move forward due to lack of "prosecutorial merit," as per an October statement.

At the commencement of the trial, the prosecutors claimed that the initial “honeymoon phase” between Majors and Jabbari, who met on the set of Quantumania, soon gave way to the “defendant’s true persona." Majors was accused of a “vicious and calculative pattern of psychological and physical cruelty, leading to the end of their relationship,” according to The Messenger. However, Majors’s defense, led by attorney Priya Chaudhry, contended that Jabbari’s accusations were driven by “vengeance” and were aimed at destroying Mr. Majors’s life.

Throughout the trial, material such as security and traffic-camera footage of the pair leaving their automobile post alleged altercation, images of Jabbari’s broken finger and a scratch behind her ear, as well as Majors’ call to authorities the morning after the incident were examined. This call revealed Majors’ telling police that his ex had “attempted suicide, I believe.” Majors’s lawyer stated in her closing argument that Majors’s “fear of the outcome of a Black man in America calling 911 came true.”

Judge Michael Gaffey also permitted public access to texts and an audio recording from a prior dispute between the couple in September 2022. In the texts, Majors seemingly discourages Jabbari from going to the hospital even after a head injury. “I’m scared that you can't comprehend the potential consequences if you go to the hospital,” a text from Majors reads. “They’ll question you, and since I doubt that you’re protecting us, it can lead to an inquiry even if you lie and they suspect anything else.” In the conversation, Majors also seems to threaten suicide, writing, “I’m a beast. A terrible man. Incapable of love. I’ll end my life soon. I’ve already started preparations.” In the audio recording, Majors is heard raising his voice and telling Jabbari that she must have a certain mindset to support him, akin to how Coretta Scott King stood by Martin Luther King Jr. and Michelle Obama supported Barack Obama.

While Majors did not testify, Jabbari did take the stand to speak about Majors’s “short temper, fury and slight aggression” during their two-year relationship. In her concluding statements, Chaudhry said, “This entire trial is based on Grace’s untruths—and Grace does lie a lot,” The Messenger reported. The prosecutor Kelli Galaway was cited by People as telling the jury that “this is not a vindictive plot to sabotage a man’s career or destroy his life,” emphasizing that Jabbari initially didn’t cooperate with prosecuted and tried to shield Majors. “Do these actions portray a woman who is hell-bent on taking a man down? Her reluctance to cooperate?” Galaway questioned.

Since Majors’s arrest, his once promising career has been on indefinite pause. His public relations firm parted ways with him, and he was dropped by his longtime management company due to “issues surrounding the actor’s personal behavior,” as sources told Deadline (he remains a client of management agency WME). His future with the Marvel Cinematic Universe, in which he plays the villainous Kang the Conqueror, remains undecided. The studio has not commented on Majors’s case or his involvement in upcoming projects, including Avengers: The Kang Dynasty, which was moved from 2025 to 2026 and lost its director, Destin Daniel Cretton. Before the case, Majors was also positioned to receive an awards-season push for his independent film Magazine Dreams, which debuted at Sundance to acclaim, with VF’s chief critic calling his performance a “terrifying wonder.” But by late October, the film had been pulled from its December 8 theatrical slot; it currently remains undated.