Majors’ ex-girlfriend tells the jury his anger was explosive and terrifying

Jonathan Majors’ ex-girlfriend testified Tuesday that he frequently yelled at her and once threw household items at her so hard that it dented the wall near where she was standing.

The woman, Grace Jabbari, described more than a half-dozen episodes that began in December 2021, months after her relationship with Mr. Majors, an actor who was expected to anchor future Marvel films. Ms. Jabbari gave her report in Manhattan Criminal Court on Tuesday as the trial of Mr. Majors entered its second day of testimony.

Mr Majors “just exploded,” she said, describing the incident in July 2022 when he threw objects at her in anger.

Prosecutors said during their opening statement this week that Mr. Majors had been abusive and manipulated and threatened her during his relationship with Ms. Jabbari, culminating in an attack in the early hours of March 25 as the couple drove home in a rental car. . Mr. Majors was arrested and charged by the Manhattan District Attorney’s office with several felony counts of assault and harassment.

But Mr Majors’ lawyer, Priya Chaudhry, argued that her client had been a victim of the altercation and emerged from the car scratched and bloodied. The allegations against Mr Majors were an act of revenge by Ms Jabbari for ending their relationship, Ms Chaudhry said.

On Tuesday, Ms. Jabbari smiled as she entered the courtroom. She engaged the jury throughout her speech and laughed nervously when the prosecutor, Kelli Galaway, asked her questions at the beginning of her testimony.

But when she described how Mr Majors was angry with her for being uncommunicative while she was at a music festival, she asked for a tissue. She cried throughout the remainder of her testimony and at one point left the courtroom for several minutes to collect herself.

Mr. Majors watched most of her testimony impassively, occasionally glancing toward the witness stand and once blinking toward the ceiling in sudden response to her words.

Ms Jabbari said when she and Mr Majors started dating in 2021, he was loving. But as their relationship progressed, Ms. Jabbari said, she felt “isolated” and increasingly scared.

“It was confusing because I was scared of him, but quite dependent on him,” she said. A year later, Ms. Jabbari said, she was “quite physically afraid” of Mr. Majors.

“I felt tense,” she told jurors. “I was just afraid that I could do something that could put him in this angry state.”

In September 2022, Ms. Jabbari said, she had a friend visit the couple’s home in London. Mr. Majors, who had returned from a day of filming and had completed a workout with his trainer at home, was not in the mood for company. His rage lasted for days, she said, as he confronted her when they met outside, pulled her headphones out of her ears and stepped on them — and ordered her to move.

In a recording she made days later and played in court on Tuesday, Mr Majors accused her of being drunk and “disturbing the peace of our home”. Calling on Michelle Obama and Coretta Scott King, wife of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Mr. Majors told her he needed a partner who would support him as they had supported their husbands.

“I’m a great man. A great man. I am doing great things,” he said, adding: “The woman who supports me, the one I support, has to be a great woman and make sacrifices.”

Days later, Mr. Majors texted her and threatened to kill himself, she said, telling her he had “taken steps to do so.”

Felony charges rarely go to trial because a large majority of defendants plead guilty to avoid facing a harsher sentence. But Mr. Majors is struggling to save his reputation.

Majors, who received an Emmy nomination for his role in the series “Lovecraft Country,” was quickly on his way to stardom as the centerpiece of planned superhero films. The charges put his career on hold.