Jonathan Majors and Meagan Good arrive at court on Dec. 4, 2023.Photo:Yuki Iwamura/AP Photo
Yuki Iwamura/AP Photo
Jonathan Majorswiped away tears as his defense lawyer finished closing statements in hismisdemeanorassault trialThursday morning.
“Why are you here?” Priya Chaudhry told the jury. “You are here—” she stopped, her voice choked with tears. “You are here to end this nightmare for Jonathan Majors.”
A tears rolled down Majors’ cheek as he wiped his face with the back of his coat sleeve.
“Jonathan Majors is innocent,” Chaudhry concluded.
In her reserved seat in the first row,Meagan Good, Majors’current girlfriendwho hasattended every day of his trial, wiped her eyes with a tissue. Majors’ mother, who has daily sat beside her, put her arm around Good’s shoulder.
As Chaudhry returned to her seat at the defense table, Majors pulled out her chair to let her sit. The actor remained seated, with his hand over his face as lawyers on both sides convened with the judge ahead of prosecutors’ closing statement.
Jonathan Majors and Meagan Good in court on Nov. 29, 2023.Yuki Iwamura/AP Photo
Majors is facingchargesof assault in the third degree with intent to cause physical injury, assault in the third degree recklessly causing physical injury, aggravated harassment in the second degree, and harassment in the second degree in connection with analleged fightbetween him and hisex-girlfriendGrace Jabbariin New York City back in March.
The Marvel actor, who has maintained his innocence from the beginning,faces up to a year behind barsif convicted of the charges.
Over four days of testimony last week, Jabbari told the jury that Majors, her boyfriend of more than a year and a half, had often slipped into easy “rage and aggression,” during their relationship, and that on March 25 they had gotten intoa physical altercation, leading to his arrest.
Describingthat night, Jabbari said after an evening out the couple wasinside a hired carand heading back to the penthouse they shared when she claims she saw a text message from another woman on Majors’ phone.
Jabbari said she took the phone from his hands and that in response, Majors allegedly twisted her right arm. As she curled her body “just trying to protect myself,” she claimed she felt “a really hard blow against my head" that “took me aback.”
The following day, Majors, returning from a hotel, came back to the penthouse they shared to a locked bedroom door,according to later 911 audio submitted into evidence. Majors banged repeatedly on the door, with Jabbari unconscious inside, his agent testified to the jury Wednesday afternoon.
Then, Majors called 911.
“I don’t know,”Majors told the 911 dispatcherwhen she asked what happened. “But she’s unconscious. She’s naked from the bottom down. She has a sweatshirt on. She’s my ex-partner. We broke up. I came back. She sent me text messages insinuating as much.”
Grace Jabbari at court on Dec. 5, 2023.Bebeto Matthews/AP Photo
Bebeto Matthews/AP Photo
Police arrived minutes later. Jabbari went to the hospital and was treated for a hairline fracture to a bone in her middle finger and a cut to her ear. Majors was arrested in his living room.
Throughout the trial, the defense has argued that the case boils down to race: with a small White woman testifying as a victim against a large Black man in the defendant’s chair.
“They took a look at Mr. Majors and made up their minds,” Chaudhry said in closing statements of the responding police officers. “They decided who was the victim and who was the criminal, and then they asked Grace if Mr. Majors had done this to her.”
She added that knowing what calling 911 could mean, a concerned Majors had dialed anyway and “his fear of what happens when a Black man in America calls 911 came true.”
“And now we’re here,” Chaudhry told the jury.
But taking the stand Thursday afternoon, Assistant District Attorney Kelli Galaway alleged that the assault case boiled down to “control, domination, manipulation and abuse,” and that “the defendant didn’t hesitate to use physical violence” when Jabbari discovered his infidelity and grabbed his phone.
Galaway played audio of Majors in an alleged previous recorded fight with Jabbari, calling himself a “great man,” and sayinghe needed a “Michelle Obama”or “Coretta Scott King” type to support him.
She also flashed on a screen alleged text messages between Majors and Jabbari from September 2022 — months before the charged incident — in which Majorsappears to admit to physically attacking Jabbariandthreatening to kill himselfif she went to the hospital for an injury to her head.
“Context,” Galaway said as the jury turned toward the text messages.
Jonathan Majors and Grace Jabbari on Sept. 12, 2022.Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images
Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images
In light of the trial and other former partners of Majors coming forward alleging other instances of abuse, there has been speculation over Majors’ future acting career and rumors that his supervillain Kang character could be recast within the Marvel universe.
“Is that the actions of a woman whose sole intent is to take a man down?” Galway asked. “To not cooperate?”
source: people.com
