Here's the key prosecution evidence in Marvel actor Jonathan Majors' domestic violence trial
Majors was convicted of two counts. Evidence included police camera footage from Majors' home and videos that show the end of his altercation with Grace Jabbari.
Update: Majors was convicted today of third-degree assault recklessly causing physical injury and second-degree harassment. The assault is for the finger injury in the SUV and the harassment is for forcing Jabbari back into the SUV as seen in the video.
Jurors are to continue deliberating today in actor Jonathan Majors’ domestic violence trial in Manhattan.
The 34-year-old Yale School of Drama graduate and rising Hollywood star played supervillain Kang the Conqueror in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, and Disney’s Marvel Studios had plans to build a superhero series around him through Avengers: The Kang Dynasty in 2026 and Avengers: Secret Wars in 2027.
Major’s career is awaiting the outcome of his trial, in which he’s charged with four crimes: third-degree assault with intent to cause physical injury, third-degree assault recklessly causing physical injury, second-degree aggravated harassment and second-degree harassment. The first three charges are misdemeanors and the fourth is a violation. He faces up to a year in jail if convicted, though a probationary sentence is more likely.
The alleged victim is his former girlfriend of two years, Grace Jabbari, a British dancer and movement coach whom he met on the Ant-Man set in London.
Judge Michael Gaffey in New York City Criminal Court authorized the public release of trial exhibits last week.
I’ve received many requests to cover this trial, so I did what I could from my office in California and obtained the exhibits through the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, also known as the New York County District Attorney’s Office. I’ve assembled everything here in the most straightforward way possible.
Foremost is a 33-minute mashup of surveillance videos from locations visited by Majors and Jabbari on the evening of March 24 into the morning of March 25, beginning with the then-couple leaving Majors’ triplex apartment in the Chelsea Mercantile building at 6:24 p.m.
The video contains footage from a camera at 221 Canal Street in Manhattan’s Chinatown that shows what prosecutors say is the harassment violation. In it, Majors’ chauffeured SUV stops and Majors emerges struggling with Jabbari. He puts her back into the SUV, which prosecutors allege was done with great force, then Jabbari chases after him.
According to trial reports, Jabbari testified that before the SUV stopped, Majors injured one of her fingers as they struggled over his cellphone after she saw a text from someone saved as Cleopatra that said, “Wish I was kissing you right now.” Jabbari said Majors also smacked her head and injured her ear.
I posted 8 minutes and 45 seconds of the footage below with the other exhibits, including the police body camera footage from Majors’ home when officers spoke with Jabbari in the closet.
The recordings follow Jabbari and Majors as Jabbari chases Majors for several blocks.
Jabbari spoke with people on a sidewalk then says something to Majors as he walks by. Surveillance video shows Majors and Jabbari then get back into the SUV, then exit again.
Jabbari then joined Zoller at Zoosie’s nightclub before returning to Majors’ penthouse. In trial, she testified she arrived about 3 a.m. and fell asleep in a walk-in closet after taking over-the-counter sleeping pills. Majors found her there after being let into the locked home by the building’s maintenance man, and he called 911.
By then, Majors had texted Jabbari saying he was ending their relationship. His defense has cast Jabbari has a scorned alcoholic who’s lying to get revenge. His lawyers say Jabbari drunkenly injured herself when she was alone, and it was she who assaulted Majors in the SUV.
The 33-minute video has footage from several locations, including the nightclub, the hotel and the lobby and elevator of Majors’ apartment.
Two of the people who went to the nightclub with Jabbari testified for prosecutors: Chloe Zoller and Max Manning.
Video of them talking with Jabbari on the street eight minutes after the alleged assault, shows Jabbari effortlessly using her right middle finger to help twist her hair into a bun, and video from the nightclub shows her using the finger as she walks up a staircase, handles a credit card and squeezes a lime into a drink. But Zoller also testified that Jabbari said at the club that her finger hurt, so Zoller gave her some ice to put on it. Business Insider called it “significant testimony.”
“Majors is fighting the charges by arguing that Jabbari had injured her own self hours hours after their fight, during a drunken fall while alone in his Manhattan triplex apartment. So testimony that Jabbari was injured before then is very helpful to the prosecution,” according to a Dec. 11 article.
Other significant testimony includes that of Naveed Sarwar, Majors’ private chauffeur who was driving the SUV when the first alleged assault occurred. Sarwar speaks Urdo, the national language of Pakistan, so a court-certified inter translated his testimony to English live as it happened.
New York County Assistant District Attorney Michael Perez said in his opening statement that Sarwar saw Majors throw Jabbari “like a football.” Sarwar testified that Majors was “trying to get rid of her” and telling Jabbari, “Leave me alone. I have to go.”
“He was trying to throw her in the car,” Sarwar said, according to Business Insider. “I do remember [Majors] was pushing her back into the car to get rid of her.”
Prosecutors showed jurors these photos of Jabbari’s injuries.
Majors called 911 later on March 25 after finding Jabbari in the closet. He told the dispatcher, “She’s unconscious.” The call lasted nearly five minutes and was entered as evidence
Prosecutors also entered as evidence body camera footage from Sgt. Bryan Hanson and Officer Brendan Swayne of the New York City Police Department. The footage was played for jurors without sound under a decision by Judge Gaffey that followed argument in pre-trial hearings.
In addition to the March 25 incident, jurors heard of a fight between Jabbari and Majors that she testified occurred in their Los Angeles home in July 2022 in which he threw a candle at her. According to USA Today, Jabbari said Majors was “full of rage and aggression” at the time while filming Magazine Dreams, in which he portrays an aspiring bodybuilder. The movie’s national release, originally scheduled for December, was halted after Major’s arrest.
Prosecutors entered the photo below as evidence, taken by Jabbari.
Jurors also heard a recording that Jabbari secretly made of Majors lecturing her in September 2022.
Here’s a transcript:
Majors: …be doing right now? Period. This is actually, period. Do you understand that?
Jabbari: Yeah.
Majors: Do you really love me? Do you really?
Jabbari: Yes.
Majors: Then how dare you come home drunk and disturb the peace of our house when we have a plan.
Jabbari: I’m sorry
Majors: I would like to get to the point where your friends know what job I’m on and go “I think Grace is gonna be out of commission.” Get me?
Jabbari: Yeah, I won’t.
Majors: No, no, do you understand that? Because that team, that unit, right? Grace has to be of a certain mindset to support — Coretta Scott King, do you know who that is? That’s Martin Luther King’s wife. Michelle Obama, Barack Obama’s wife.
Jabbari: I know, I shouldn’t have gone out. I’m sorry
Majors: Let me just lay it out for you, right? If I am, I’m just gonna say this. My temper, my shit, all that. All that said, right? And let’s say, I’m a great man. A great man. I am doing great things, not just for me, but for my, for my culture and the world. That is actually the position I’m in. That’s real. I’m not being a dick about it. I didn’t ask for it. I’ve worked, and that’s the situation. The woman that supports me — that I support, the work that — needs to be a great woman and make sacrifices the way that man is making for her and for them ultimately. Last night, two nights ago, you did not do that.
Jabbari: I’m sorry
Majors: You did not do that, which was took away from the plan. And the plan is everything. If it was just you, maybe I could swallow it. Or I was just gonna like, “Hey, let’s go just bed. I’m just gonna bed, I’m not hungry, blah blah blah. Because Grace isn’t here. Why? She was drunk. Why else? She was clogged by whatever was going on.” Fine. I can take that. Fine.
In addition to the recording, jurors saw texts between Majors and Jabbari in September 2022 in which Majors said he planned to kill himself.
The texts are partly redacted, and they don’t show what Jabbari texted Majors before he told her, “I will probably mill myself,” mistyping “kill.”
Jurors ended up seeing much more of the conversation later in Jabbari’s re-direct examination. According to several reports, Judge Gaffey had ruled inadmissible messages Jabbari sent about going to a hospital for an apparent head injury. But the judge ruled Majors’ lawyer Priya Chaudhry opened the door for the texts through her cross-examination of Jabbari.
According to People magazine, Chaudhry “had drilled Jabbari about why the morning after the alleged March 2023 incident, the woman had told emergency personnel that she did not remember how she had become injured.” The judge said she’d asked the questions to try to impugne Jabbari’s credibility even though she “knew there might be another reason she was not forthcoming.”
As a result, jurors the texts that preceded Majors’ suicide threat, in which Jabbari said, “I will not go to the doctor if you don’t feel safe with me dong so, or don’t trust me. I promise I would never mention you but I understand your fear.”
Earlier, Majors texted her, “It’s just fake,” though it’s unclear what he was referring to. He also texted, “I fear you have no perspective of what could happen if you go to the hospital. They will ask you questions and as I don’t think you actually protect us it could lead to an investigation even if you do lie and they suspect something.”
Jabbarri replied, “I will tell the doctor I bumped my head, if I go.” The first part of her message is redacted.
Here’s the full text message string from Jabbari’s re-direct:
I emailed Majors’ lawyers inquiring about defense exhibits but have not heard back.
The jury began deliberating Thursday afternoon and deliberated for about three hours Friday afternoon. They’ve already. asked to hear the 911 call, watch the video of the SUV altercation and hear Judge Gaffey explain each charge.
There are six jurors, which is allowed for misdemeanor trials in New York City Criminal Court. They’re to return to the deliberation room today at 10 a.m. E.T. / 7 a.m. P.T.
I spoke about the case live on TV Friday afternoon. (I misspoke regarding the photo from July 2022; sorry about that.) I’ll do another video when jury deliberations conclude.
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I really want to know what she has told her friends and family. Too bad it's hearsay.