Jonathan Majors Speaks out About Conviction in Domestic Violence Trial
Jonathan Majors was found guilty of assault and harassment of his ex-girlfriend, Grace Jabbari, on December 18 following a two-week domestic violence trial in New York City. Majors is facing up to one year in prison for the conviction. Ahead of his February 6 sentencing hearing, the actor has spoken out about the verdict in a new interview on Good Morning America, maintaining his innocence despite the two guilty verdicts.
Majors told ABC News Live‘s Linsey Davis that he was “shocked and afraid” when the verdicts were read on December 18. The trial took place over two weeks, during which Majors declined to testify in his defense. The trial was brought forth after Majors was arrested for a domestic dispute that took place on March 25, 2023.
The reported incident occurred when Majors received a text from another woman that said, “Oh, how I wish to be kissing you.” Jabbari reportedly took his phone, and she testified that Majors fractured her middle finger and gave cut her a behind her ear in his attempt to get the phone back. A surveillance video of the dispute shows Majors shoving Jabbari into the back seat of a car.
Jabbari testified that inside the car, Majors twisted her arm and hit her in the face, resulting in her injuries. The Loki actor filed a cross-complaint against Jabbari after his arrest, saying it was she who assaulted him. Majors said in the interview that he sustained scratches on his wrist and face from Jabbari. The photos of his injuries were deemed inadmissible in court. Majors pled not guilty to the charges against him before the trial and continued to say he was innocent in the GMA interview.
“That did not happen,” Majors told Davis of Jabbari’s claims of what happened in the car. A jury determined that, based on the evidence provided, Majors did assault and harass Jabbari during this altercation. But the Marvel star says he doesn’t understand how the jury reached a guilty verdict based on the evidence. (Marvel/Disney fired Majors following the guilty verdicts, a representative confirmed to TV Insider at the time of the conviction.)
“I’m standing there and the verdict comes down. I say, ‘How is that possible based off the evidence, based off the prosecution’s evidence, let alone our evidence? How is that possible?” he told Davis. Majors also claims that he has no idea how Jabbari sustained the injuries.
“I wish to god I knew,” he said. “That would give clarity. That would give me some type of peace about it.”
Jonathan Majors is speaking out for the first time since his conviction in a domestic violence trial in an interview with ABC News: pic.twitter.com/bYpwZ4qbfq
— philip lewis (@Phil_Lewis_) January 8, 2024
After Majors pushed Jabbari into the car, the surveillance video shows him running away and Jabbari following him. Jabbari running after him was a key part of Majors’ defense in the trial. Majors said on GMA that “if you watch those videos and you reverse that, and you saw a Black man chasing a young white girl down the street, screaming and crying, that man is gonna be shot and killed in the streets of New York City.”
Jabbari’s attorney, Brittany Henderson, told ABC News in a statement about Majors’ GMA interview that he “continues to take no accountability for his actions.”
“His denigration of our jury system is not dissimilar from the above-the-law attitude that he has maintained throughout this legal process,” Henderson said. “The timing of these new statements demonstrates a clear lack of remorse for the actions for which he was found guilty and should make the sentencing decisions fairly easy for the Court.”
Davis also questioned the Lovecraft Country alum about an audio recording shared by Jabbari in court during which he says he’s a “great man” who needs a “great woman” who models their behavior after Coretta Scott King and former First Lady Michelle Obama to support him, seemingly comparing himself to Martin Luther King Jr. and President Barack Obama.
“I’m a great man. A great man. I do great things for my culture and for the world,” he’s heard saying in the audio, featured in the video above. “The woman that supports me needs to be a great woman. Two nights ago, you did not do that, which took away from the plan.” Jabbari testified that she believed his meaning with this comment to be that “he had to come first.” Majors told Davis he was giving an analogy.
“It was me trying to give an analogy of what it is I’m aspiring to be, you know, these great men — Martin, President Obama — and trying to give a reference point to that,” he said, adding, “I was attempting, and I did a terrible job at it apparently, I was attempting to motivate, to enlighten, to give perspective as in to what it is I was hoping to get out of the relationship.”
Majors was found guilty on one count of misdemeanor third-degree assault and one count of second-degree harassment. He was acquitted on two other counts, one of assault and another of aggravated harassment. The actor intends to appeal.
