Grace Jabbari’s testimony in the assault trial of Marvel star Jonathan Majors has included shocking revelations about the night of the alleged assault involving the actor and his ex-girlfriend. On Wednesday and Thursday, Jabbari continued to detail the events of the night in question, discussing her injuries and reacting to video footage presented by the Creed III star’s defense attorney.
According to Variety, during her second day on the stand, she explained that Majors had previously discouraged her from involving the police because of “what they would do to him as a Black man.”
“I didn’t want to put him in that situation,” she said.
Majors’ lawyer, Priya Chaudhry, stated that the actor called the police because he was worried about “Jabbari’s mental state.”
She became emotional when body cam footage of the police entering her apartment was shown, asking the judge “do I have to?” She told the court that when “she woke up to ‘loads of officers’” in her home, she didn’t want to reveal what allegedly happened the night before, but she did end up telling the officers about Majors. Jabbari explained that she felt guilty about his arrest.
“I felt like it was my fault,” she said. “I should have lied and said nothing happened so he wouldn’t be in trouble or upset with me. I wanted to fix it.”
Seeing that footage led Jabbari to leave the courtroom in tears.
As previously reported by The Root, on her first day of testimony, Jabbari stated that after the alleged assault, Majors went to a hotel and she went to a bar because she “didn’t want to be alone.” According to Variety, during cross examination on Thursday, Chaudhry showed surveillance footage of Jabbari at the nightclub, questioning the severity of her injuries.
“I was feeling pain but I was choosing to ignore it. I was filled with adrenaline,” Jabbari said. “The next morning is when [the pain] sunk in. When I woke up, I felt like I had been hit by a bus.”
Chaudry then focused her questions on Jabbari’s head injury, asking her if she hit her head on the DJ stand, as well as questioning her about touching her hair, even though she had a cut behind her ear and “pain in her finger.”
“I wasn’t thinking about pain at this point. I was upset,” Jabbari said.
The Loki actor’s defense team has maintained his innocence, claiming that Jabbari actually assaulted him. The alleged assault started when they were in the back of a private car and Majors received a text from another woman. When Major’s lawyer asked if the actor used “a lot of force” during their fight in the back of the car, Jabbari answered “yes,” stating “I knew not to fight back.”
In addition to attempted assault, harassment and aggravated harassment, Majors is charged with two counts of assault. If he’s convicted he could face up to one year in jail.