Jonathan Majors Trial: More witnesses testify as trial enters second week

More witnesses took the stand Monday as the trial for Jonathan Majors’ alleged assault entered its second week.

Majors’ ex-girlfriend, Grace Jabbari, has alleged that Majors assaulted her in the backseat of a car on March 25. Jabbari testified last week that she saw a text message on Majors’ phone from another woman that read, “Wish I was kissing you right now.”

She said that she took the phone out of his hands to see who sent the message and he forcefully retrieved it. She said this caused bruising, swelling and “excruciating” pain and she had a swollen finger and a cut behind her ear.

After the incident in the car, Jabbari exited and met three strangers on the street. She told them about what happened with Majors and they consoled her outside. After talking, the three people then invited Jabbari to a birthday party at Loosie’s Nightclub in Manhattan’s Lower East Side. Jabbari said she accompanied them because she “didn’t want to be alone”.

At the party, Jabbari danced with her new friends, took “one or two” tequila shots and bought a bottle of champagne with Majors’ credit card. “I was upset about the cheating,” she said during her testimony last week. “It was on my mind”.

Two of the three people Jabbari met on the street, Chloe Zoller and Max Manning, testified in court on Monday. Zoller said Jabbari was “visibly upset” outside and she did not initially notice any injuries on Jabbari. When they entered the club, Zoller said Jabbari complained that her finger was hurting, so Zoller gave her some ice from a drink bucket on their table to apply to it.

Naveed Sarwar, the driver of the car that Majors and Jabbari had been in, also testified via an interpreter. He said that he had been hired as Major’s private driver for the day and had driven him and Jabbari to the Brooklyn Academy of Music and then to a restaurant for dinner.

He said the couple seemed “good” earlier in the day, until Jabbar noticed the text message on Majors’ phone in the evening. Sarwar testified that Jabbari became “angry” and she and Majors started arguing.

“I was feeling something was going on in the backseat,” Sarwar said. “When I reached at Canal and Centre Street, [Majors] wanted to get rid of [Jabbari] and he opened the door…I saw they were fighting when the car stopped. He was trying to get rid of her.”

The prosecution played video footage from security and traffic cameras that showed Majors and Jabbari’s altercation, them leaving Sarwar’s car and then Jabbari meeting the three people on the street. “He was trying to throw her in the car,” Sarwar said. “I do remember [Majors] was pushing her back into the car to get rid of her.”

Jabbari was treated by Dr. William K. Chiang at Bellevue Hospital for her broken middle finger and the cut behind her ear. When she was admitted, she said she had gotten into an argument with her boyfriend and took two unknown sleeping pills. Chiang determined Jabbari had a hairline, non-displaced fracture in her right middle finger that was likely caused by direct trauma to it.

The cut behind her right ear was two centimetres long and consistent with hitting or being hit by a sharp object. Jabbari was also treated psychiatrically but was cleared “of any concern for suicide or severe depression,” according to Chiang.

Majors’ attorney Priya Chaudhry has alleged it was Jabbari who assaulted Majors in the vehicle that night and not the other way around. Sarwar testified that he thought Jabbari may have hit Majors during their argument in his backseat, but he was reminded by the judge to only describe things he saw.

“[Jabbari] was yelling at [Majors] and they were having an argument. I had a feeling [Jabbari] had hit [Majors] earlier, the way she was fighting and the sounds produced,” Sarwar said.

The defence has also argued that Jabbari fabricated the allegations to get back at Majors after their breakup. They met in August 2021 on the London set of Marvel’s “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” and dated for two years before Majors ended the relationship on the night of the alleged assault.

Majors is on trial for three misdemeanour counts of assault and harassment, to which he’s pleaded not guilty. If convicted, he could face up to a year in prison.