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More witnesses took the stand Monday as the trial for Jonathan MayoresThe alleged assault entered its second week.
Majors’ ex-girlfriend, Grace Jabbari, has alleged that Majors assaulted her in the back seat of a car on March 25. Jabbari testified last week that she saw a text message on Majors’ phone from another woman that said, “I wish I was kissing you right now.” She said she grabbed the phone out of his hands to see who sent the message and he grabbed it back with force. She said this caused bruising, swelling and “excruciating” pain, and that she had a swollen finger and a cut behind her ear.
After the incident in the car, Jabbari went out and met three strangers on the street. She told them what happened with Majors and they comforted her outside. After talking, the three people invited Jabbari to a birthday party at Loosie’s nightclub on 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, had “one or two” shots of tequila and bought a bottle of champagne with Majors’ credit card. “I was bothered by the deception,” 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 that she initially did not notice any injuries on Jabbari. When they entered the club, Zoller said Jabbari complained that his finger hurt, so Zoller gave him some ice from a drink bucket on her table to apply.
Naveed Sarwar, the driver of the car Majors and Jabbari were traveling in, also testified through an interpreter. He said he had been hired as Major’s private driver for the day and had taken him and Jabbari to the Brooklyn Museum Academy and then to a restaurant for dinner. He said the couple seemed “fine” at the beginning of the day, until Jabbar noticed the text message on Majors’ phone in the evening. Sarwar testified that Jabbari became “angry” and she and Majors began arguing.
“I felt like something was happening in the back seat,” Sarwar said. “When I got to Canal and Center Street, (Majors) wanted to get rid of (Jabbari) and 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 showing the altercation between Majors and Jabbari, as they got out of Sarwar’s car and then Jabbari met the three people on the street. “I was trying to throw her into the car,” Sarwar said. “I remember (Majors) was pushing her towards 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 came in, she said she had had an argument with her boyfriend and had taken two unknown sleeping pills. Chiang determined that Jabbari had a tiny, non-displaced fracture in his right middle finger that was likely caused by direct trauma. The cut behind her right ear was two centimeters long and corresponded to a blow or blow with a sharp object. Jabbari also received psychiatric treatment, but she was cleared “of any concern for suicide or serious depression,” according to Chiang.
Majors’ lawyer, Priya Chaudhry, has alleged that it was Jabbari who assaulted Majors in the vehicle that night and not the other way around. Sarwar testified that she thought Jabbari may have hit Majors during their argument in his back seat, but the judge reminded her to only describe the things he saw.
“(Jabbari) was yelling at (Majors) and they were arguing. He had the feeling that (Jabbari) had hit (Majors) before, from the way he was fighting and the sounds made,” Sarwar said.
The defense has also argued that Jabbari made up 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 misdemeanor counts of assault and harassment, to which he has pleaded not guilty. If he is convicted, he could face up to a year in prison.
