Jonathan Majors' Domestic Violence Sentencing Postponed Until April After Guilty Verdict
The 'Creed III' actor’s sentencing, originally slated for Tuesday, was postponed by a slew of post-conviction motions filed by his lawyers
UPDATE: During a court hearing Tuesday afternoon in New York City, Majors appeared virtually and a new sentencing date was scheduled for Monday, April 8.
Jonathan Majors' sentencing hearing has been delayed.
The actor’s sentencing, originally slated for Tuesday, was postponed by a motion to set aside the verdict, filed by his lawyers.
At the start of his misdemeanor trial, the judge told him he could face up to a year behind bars for charges related to an alleged fight between him and his former girlfriend, Grace Jabbari, in New York City in March 2023.
In a split verdict in December, Majors, 34, was found guilty of misdemeanor assault in the third degree, recklessly causing physical injury, as well as harassment in the second degree in the domestic violence case.
The actor was found not guilty of misdemeanor assault in the third degree with intent to cause physical injury, and misdemeanor aggravated harassment in the second degree.
Describing that March night, Jabbari, 31, said after an evening out the couple was inside a hired car heading back to the penthouse they shared, when she had saw a flirtatious text message from another woman on Majors’s phone.
She said she took the phone from his hands and that, in response, Majors twisted her right arm. As she curled her body “just trying to protect myself,” she said she felt “a really hard blow against my head" that “took me aback.”
Related: Jonathan Majors Says He Was 'Shocked and Afraid' by Guilty Verdict in First Interview Since Trial
The December guilty verdict put a halt to the actor’s rising stardom, which in the early part of 2023 saw Majors starring alongside Michael B. Jordan in Creed III and as the villainous Kang the Conqueror in Marvel’s Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. Marvel Studios dropped Majors from their roster the day of the Dec. 18 verdict.
Then in January, Searchlight Pictures returned its film rights on the once-highly anticipated Magazine Dreams, starring Majors as an amateur bodybuilder, which had generated early awards buzz before Disney pulled it from its release roster.
That same month, Majors also lost the main role of Dennis Rodman — himself a divisive and controversial character — in the star-studded NBA player’s biopic.
Majors opted not to take the stand over the course of his 14-day trial, and he daily ignored reporters’ questions at the Manhattan courthouse.
He spoke out for the first time in a Good Morning America interview in January, saying he felt “absolutely shocked and afraid” when he was pronounced guilty.
“How is that possible?” he said in the interview. “Based off the evidence, based off the prosecution’s evidence, let alone our evidence.”
The morning after the couple’s fight, Majors returned to the penthouse they shared and found their bedroom door locked, according to 911 audio submitted into evidence and reviewed by the jury during deliberations. In the call, Majors told the 911 dispatcher he did not know what had happened to Jabbari.
“She’s unconscious,” Majors said in audio of the call. “She’s naked from the bottom down. She has a sweatshirt on. She’s my ex-partner. We broke up. I came back. She sent me text messages insinuating as much.”
Police arrived at the couple’s Manhattan penthouse minutes later. Jabbari went to the hospital and was treated for a hairline fracture to a bone in her middle finger and a cut to her ear. Majors was arrested in his living room.
“This is not a he said–she said case,” Assistant District Attorney Kelli Galaway told the jury in closing statements in December. “This is a she said-plus.”
As part of her closing statements, Galaway flashed on a screen alleged text messages between Majors and Jabbari from September 2022 — months before the charged incident — in which Majors, calling himself “a monster and horrible man," appears to admit to physically attacking Jabbari and threatening to kill himself if she went to the hospital for an injury to her head.
“I fear you have no perspective of what could happen if you go to the hospital,” Majors had texted Jabbari following that earlier alleged incident, according to the messages. “They will ask you questions and as I don’t think you actually protect us it could lead to an investigation even if you do lie and they suspect something.”
Galaway also played audio of Majors in a previous, recorded fight with Jabbari, calling himself a “great man,” and saying he needed a “Michelle Obama” or “Coretta Scott King” to support him.
In the GMA interview, Majors once again referenced Martin Luther King Jr.’s wife, calling his current girlfriend Meagan Good “a Coretta.” Good, 42, has not publicly commented on her relationship with Majors since the verdict but appeared daily at his trial.
In a tweet by King’s youngest child, Bernice King, which did not make direct reference to Majors but followed shortly after the taped interview aired, King wrote: “My mother wasn’t a prop.”
If you are experiencing domestic violence, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233, or go to thehotline.org. All calls are toll-free and confidential. The hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages.
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