Actor Jonathan Majors manhandled ex Grace Jabbari in ‘cruel and manipulative pattern’ of abuse, NYC jury hears

Jonathan Majors violently manhandled his ex-girlfriend Grace Jabbari when she caught him texting another woman and continued to strongarm her months later by framing himself as the victim, a Manhattan prosecutor alleged Monday in opening statements at the actor’s domestic violence trial.

Assistant District Attorney Michael Perez told a Manhattan Criminal Court jury the March 25 incident was part of a “cruel and manipulative pattern of psychological and physical abuse” inflicted by Majors, culminating in the back of a cab in Chinatown.

Responding officers found Majors without a scratch when they took him into custody at a Chelsea apartment the following day, Perez said. Grace Jabbari was transported to the hospital with a broken finger and a bloody gash behind her ear.

The night before, Perez said, Majors aggressively responded when Jabbari grabbed his phone after seeing a text from another woman as the pair rode home from Brooklyn to Manhattan — striking her in the side of her head and inflicting other injuries as he tried to pry the device from her hand.

As the argument spilled onto the street, CCTV captured Majors “grabbing Grace Jabbari with his hands and shoving her into the back of the car,” the ADA said.

Perez said jurors would hear Jabbari was quickly discharged after she was evaluated at Bellevue the next day. The hospital’s attending physician is expected to testify.

“Ladies and gentlemen, the story then takes a turn,” Perez said, describing Majors’ attempts to exert control over his ex as extending “well beyond” the night of the incident when he reported her to police as the aggressor in June.

“Not the next day, not the next week, not the next month,” Perez said. “Three months later, he walks into [a] precinct to file a counter complaint.”

The NYPD arrested Jabbari briefly in September in response to Majors’ allegations, but prosecutors quickly determined the case had no merit, and it was closed and sealed.

Majors’ lawyer, Priya Chaudhry, told jurors the case boiled down to a jealous ex-girlfriend upset about a breakup. The couple dated for two years.

“Two people are in the back of a car. They have a seconds-long physical altercation over a text message on a cell phone,” Chaudhry said. “One person emerges from the car with a bloody gash.”

Majors’ lawyer told jurors it was, in fact, her client who was injured and fled the scene in fear.

“The other person emerges unscathed and unhurt and gives chase on foot through traffic like in a movie,” Chaudhry continued. “Within minutes, the bloody person goes to a hotel to hide and the other person goes to a club for hours — dancing, drinking, doing shots.”

The pair went separate ways after the argument, with Majors heading to a hotel for the night and Jabbari staying out with people who found her in distress on the sidewalk, previously released CCTV footage shows.

Majors called 911 from the couple’s apartment the following day upon arriving home and finding an injured and distraught Jabbari half-naked inside a closet, believing she was at risk of suicide, Chaudhry said.

The attorney said her client, who shot to stardom in films like “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” and “The Last Black Man in San Francisco,” presented at the Oscars just a month before his arrest. In the aftermath, he was dropped by his management company and lost a string of lucrative deals.

“This is a case about the end of a relationship, not about a crime — at least not one that Mr. Majors committed. This man is innocent. That is not just a presumption,” Chaudhry said. “At the end of this case, I’ll ask you to find Mr. Majors not guilty and ask you to end this nightmare for him.”

Wearing a beret and a blue jacket, the actor arrived at the lower Manhattan courthouse around 9:25 a.m. bearing a bible with his new girlfriend, actress Meagan Good, in tow. He’s pleaded not guilty to misdemeanor assault charges carrying up to a year in jail. Prosecutors asked Judge Michael Gaffey to dismiss four counts before proceedings kicked off Monday, which they said likely would have merged toward the trial’s end.

Perez said jurors would hear about other abusive events during the couple’s relationship, like Majors hurling objects at walls. He said they’d hear a recording of Majors berating his girlfriend and bizarrely telling her she had to live up to the standards of the late Martin Luther King’s wife, Coretta Scott King.

The case is likely to significantly hinge on the testimony of the driver present for the incident, who prosecutors said would describe Majors throwing Jabbari back into the cab like “a football” as she tried to flee. Chaudhry, in turn, told the panel he would say Jabbari was acting like a “psycho.”

In court docs filed before the trial began, the DA’s office accused the Majors team of submitting a dishonest witness statement on the driver’s behalf he denied writing. They faced similar allegations in a Rolling Stone exposé this summer, accusing Majors of physically and mentally abusing former partners and colleagues. Several of his exes denied involvement in statements provided to the magazine in their name.

Majors and his lawyers had no comment.