Marvel Actor Jonathan Majors Guilty of Assaulting Girlfriend
Actor Jonathan Majors has been found guilty of assaulting his then-girlfriend following a trial in New York.
The jury found Majors, known for playing Kang in the Marvel universe, attacked British choreographer Grace Jabbari during an altercation in March.
She told the court she was left with a fractured finger, bruising, a cut behind her ear and “excruciating” pain.
Majors now faces up to a year in jail, with a question mark over his starring roles in forthcoming Marvel films.
The jury’s verdict was announced on Monday following three days of deliberations.
The crime took place when the couple were in a car in New York and Ms Jabbari saw a text message from another woman on Majors’ phone, which said: “Wish I was kissing you right now.”
According to prosecutors, when she took the phone, he then grabbed her, twisted her arm behind her back and hit her in the head to get it back.
“I felt like a hard blow across my head,” Ms Jabbari testified.
As evidence, prosecutors submitted voice recordings and text messages from the former couple.
“I’m a monster. A horrible man. Not capable of love,” the actor sent in September 2022 while threatening to kill himself.
The jury also heard audio from an argument they had that same month in which he told her she needed to act more like Coretta Scott King and Michelle Obama, the wives of Martin Luther King and former President Barack Obama.
“I am doing great things, not just for me but for my culture and the world,” he said, adding that she would need to “make sacrifices” for him.
The prosecution painted the assault as the latest escalation in Mr Majors’ attempts to “exert control” over his girlfriend through physical and emotional violence.
Mr Majors, 34, did not testify. His lawyer has claimed the actor was the victim, however, and that Ms Jabbari assaulted him in a jealous rage after seeing the text message in the car.
By BBC News
