Jonathan Majors has been found guilty.
On Monday, the Creed III actor was found guilty of one count of reckless assault in the third degree and one of harassment in New York City. There were additional assault and harassment charges, but per TMZ the District Attorney’s Office dropped them. Still, this was plenty when it comes to a line being crossed…
As you may remember, this all stems from a March incident in which Majors and his ex-girlfriend Grace Jabbari got into a domestic dispute. At the time, he called 911 to inform them he’d found Grace unconscious in his apartment, but law enforcement arrested him after discovering injuries on her, including a fractured finger, and a cut behind her ear.
Grace took the witness stand for the first four days of the trial, which began about two weeks ago, claiming the 34-year-old caused the injuries while the two were in a car, and that the incident was consistent with a pattern of unsavory behavior. According to The Hollywood Reporter, she alleged she saw text messages on his phone from another woman reading, “Oh how I wish to be kissing you,” which she says prompted Jonathan to try and physically take the phone from her by twisting her finger and arm, even striking her on the head.
Prosecutors said he threw her back into the car after she attempted to exit, before the two engaged in a foot chase, which can be seen in footage obtained by TMZ (below):
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg told TMZ on Monday:
“At the Manhattan D.A.’s Office, we are committed to centering survivors in all of our work. The evidence presented throughout this trial illustrated a cycle of psychological and emotional abuse, and escalating patterns of coercion far too common across the many intimate partner violence cases we see each and every day. Today, a jury determined that pattern of abuse and coercion culminated with Mr. Majors assaulting and harassing his girlfriend. We thank the jury for its service and the survivor for bravely telling her story despite having to relive her trauma on the stand.”
Shortly after, Jonathan’s attorney Priya Chaudhry maintained their version of events, that she attacked him, and in the course of defending himself he accidentally injured her. She told the same outlet:
“It is clear that the jury did not believe Grace Jabbari’s story of what happened in the SUV because they found that Mr. Majors did not intentionally cause any injuries to her. We are grateful for that. We are disappointed, however, that despite not believing Ms. Jabbari, the jury nevertheless found that Mr. Majors was somehow reckless while she was attacking him. Mr. Majors is grateful to God, his family, his friends, and his fans for their love and support during these harrowing eight months. Mr. Majors still has faith in the process and looks forward to fully clearing his name.”
The guilty verdict came after a four-hour deliberation spread across three days by a six-person jury, as Jonathan sat with his current girlfriend Meagan Good. He was acquitted of one count of intentional assault and one count of aggravated harassment. His sentencing is set for February 6, and he could face up to one year in prison. Whether or not he ends up in prison — which we doubt — being found guilty of assault at all was something of a coffin nail in Jonathan’s meteoric rise to stardom.
Shortly after news of the guilty verdict emerged, a representative for Marvel Studios told Deadline the production company is opting to not move forward with Majors. He had been playing multiple versions of Kang the Conqueror — the cinematic universe’s newest big bad, their next Thanos. He had already been the villain in Disney+‘s Loki and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. But the next Avengers movie was supposed to be all about him, too — it had even been titled Avengers: The Kang Dynasty. We’re guessing that’s all going to change. Even recasting at this point feels… less tidy, shall we say, than just pivoting to one of the comics’ many other baddies.
This seemed a fait accompli even before the trial’s end. Majors had already been dropped by his his management team at 360 Entertainment and publicists at The Lede Company, and a Searchlight Pictures film titled Magazine Dreams starring Jonathan has been removed from release schedules. The idea squeaky clean Disney would ever have continued their relationship with him, even if he had been proved right in court, was unlikely.
Wow. Big news. What do you make of it all, Perezcious readers? Let us know in the comments down below.
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