Good morning. It’s Tuesday. Today we’ll look at the sentencing of Jonathan Majors, an actor who has appeared in Marvel movies.
Jonathan Majors, the rising Hollywood star who was found guilty last year of assaulting and harassing his then girlfriend, Grace Jabbari, was sentenced in Manhattan Criminal Court on Monday to 52 weeks of domestic violence counseling.
Majors had faced up to a year in jail.
Before Judge Michael Gaffey delivered the sentence, Jabbari delivered an emotional victim impact statement and said that she had suffered “extreme physical and emotional pain” because of Majors. During their two-year relationship, she said, she became “small, scared and vulnerable,” and she was “held very tightly in the palm of his abusive hand.”
“I have seen his physical anger, and he does not have control over it,” she said.
A prosecutor with the district attorney’s office, Kelli Galaway, told the court that the assault had been the “culmination of over a year of abuse” and that Majors had shown a “complete lack of remorse.”
A lawyer for Majors, Priya Chaudhry, told the judge that even though Majors maintained his innocence and planned to appeal his conviction, he “is committed to growing and bettering himself.”
Jabbari and Majors began dating in 2021, after they met on the set of the Marvel movie “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.” She was working as a movement coach, and he was playing a time-traveling supervillain named Kang the Conqueror.
The relationship ended in March 2023, when, prosecutors said, Majors attacked Jabbari in the back of an S.U.V., slapping her face, violently grabbing her hand and, after she got out of the vehicle, throwing her back into it. Prosecutors charged Majors with misdemeanor assault and harassment.
During the trial, Jabbari took the stand, at times crying as she described a turbulent relationship in which she said that Majors had exhibited explosive rage and had once thrown a candle at her.
At one point, the courtroom heard a 2022 recording that Jabbari said she had made. In the recording, Majors directs her to care for him the way Michelle Obama cares for former President Barack Obama and Coretta Scott King cared for the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Jurors also saw a text exchange in which Majors threatened suicide if Jabbari sought treatment for a head wound.
Galaway told jurors that the case was about “control, domination, manipulation and abuse.”
Chaudhry argued that Jabbari falsely accused Majors after learning he had been unfaithful. After the altercation in the car, Chaudhry added, Jabbari went dancing with people she had met that night and appeared to use the finger she said was broken when Mr. Majors attacked her.
In December, after a whirlwind two-week trial, a jury found Majors guilty of one count of assault and one count of harassment.
The trial was unusual. Defendants rarely choose to take misdemeanor assault charges to court; instead, they often accept a plea agreement to eliminate the risk of a harsher sentence. But Majors had hoped to prove his innocence, restore his reputation and keep his Hollywood career alive.
Before his arrest in March 2023, he was on the cusp of becoming a household name. He had recently starred in critically acclaimed television series and blockbusters, including HBO’s “Lovecraft Country” and “Creed III.” He was poised to star in more Marvel movies and was awaiting the release of the widely anticipated film “Magazine Dreams,” which was expected to generate Oscar buzz.
But the guilty verdict has proved to be disastrous for Majors. Marvel quickly cut ties with him, and Searchlight Pictures announced that it would not release “Magazine Dreams.” Several people, including former co-workers and two women who previously dated Majors, told The New York Times he was volatile and aggressive. Majors denied the allegations.
Majors, wearing a dark double-breasted suit and turtleneck, was accompanied by his lawyers as he left the courthouse after the sentencing on Monday. He got into a black van, and before the vehicle pulled away he leaned out a tinted window to shake hands with a court officer.
Weather
It will be a mostly sunny day with high temperatures near 70 degrees. At night, expect a chance of showers, with temperatures dropping to around 50.
ALTERNATE-SIDE PARKING
In effect today. Suspended tomorrow (Eid al-Fitr).
METROPOLITAN diary
‘The Pearl Fishers’
Dear Diary:
I am 84 and have been fortunate to spend decades devouring Manhattan’s cultural scene. I have slowed down a bit now because of my age and balance issues, and I keep my social and cultural events confined to daylight hours.
Not long ago, though, I was invited to an evening gathering that I just couldn’t resist. The late hour meant taking a cab home, something I mostly avoid.
As the cab pulled up, I noticed that the driver was very scruffy, and my anxiety increased. But I needed to get home, so I pushed my trepidation aside and got in.
Imagine my surprise when I was greeted by the sound of my favorite opera duet.
“Oh,” I said with great astonishment, “‘The Pearl Fishers.’”
“You know your opera,” the driver replied. He began to sing along with the recording beautifully and continued until we got to my home.
