Jonathan Majors found guilty in domestic violence trial [Updated]

Jonathan Majors was found guilty after being charged with assault and harassment in an incident involving his ex-girlfriend, Grace Jabbari. The jury announced the verdict on Monday after about two weeks of evidence and arguments in court. While the case revolved around a physical altercation between Majors and Jabbari that took place in a vehicle on March 25, the prosecution’s case contextualized the former couple’s relationship with prior incidents of violence and aggression Majors had allegedly perpetrated against Jabbari. He now faces up to a year in prison.

The verdict was reached by a six-person jury after over four hours of deliberation (per The Hollywood Reporter). While Majors was on trial for assault, aggravated harassment, and harassment charges, he was only found guilty of reckless assault in the third degree and harassment. He was found not guilty of intentional assault in the third degree and aggravated harassment in the second degree.

According to Rolling Stone, Majors, his girlfriend Meagan Good, and even his lawyer Priya Chaudhry became emotional and teary during closing arguments on Thursday, December 14, as Chaudhry asserted her client’s innocence and claimed the trial manifested Majors’ “fear of when a Black man in America calls 911 comes true. And now we are here.” However, the prosecution argued that Jabbari went out of her way to protect Majors, having hesitated to tell law enforcement that he was the cause of her injuries. They said Majors and his team’s tactic of labeling Jabbari as the aggressor in the incident is an example of “DARVO tactics” (Deny, Attack, Reverse Victim and Offender). “Domestic violence is serious,” Assistant district attorney Kelli Galaway said to the jury. “Victims of domestic violence struggle to report and when they do there are critiques on how they do it.”

Jabbari took the stand for several days to give testimony about the couple’s relationship; Majors, on the other hand, did not testify in the trial. The actor has already faced professional consequences in the wake of his arrest, including the apparently permanent shelving of his film Magazine Dreams, which premiered at Sundance in January 2023. He appeared as Kang the Conqueror in Marvel Studios’ Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania and the Disney+ series Loki, and was slated to be the main villain in the MCU’s next Avengers saga.

[Update 12/18 4:40 pm]: Deadline reports that Majors has been fired by Disney and Marvel in the wake of the verdict.