The assault trial against Jonathan Majors continued Friday in New York City, with newly unsealed evidence showing his ex-girlfriend Grace Jabbari complained about pain from a head injury she sustained in an altercation with the actor six months before his arrest.
Prosecutors introduced a text message exchange between Majors and Jabbari into evidence that appeared to show the actor admitting to physically assaulting Jabbari, and begging her not to go to the hospital in September 2022, according to the Associated Press.
Majors told her she had “no perspective of what could happen” if she sought help.
“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,” Majors wrote in a text.
Judge Michael Gaffey previously ruled the messages were inadmissible. But they were unsealed Friday, in response to defense attorney Priya Chaudhry asking Jabbari in cross examination why she never reported Majors to authorities. Gaffey said he decided to allow the messages as evidence because Jabbari’s “credibility has been impugned,” Courthouse News Service reported.
Related Story: Jonathan Majors Ordered Accuser to Be ‘More Like Coretta Scott King’
In one text, Jabbari said she needed painkillers following the 2022 incident.
Majors pleaded with her to remain quiet about the injury to avoid bringing scrutiny of the pair because he is African American, and Jabbari is a white British woman.
“I will tell the doctor I bumped my head,” Jabbari said through tears as she read the messages aloud in court.
Jabbari, 30, grew so emotional that a prosecutor took over reading the messages: “I will tell the doctor I bumped my head if I go. I’m going to give it one more day, but I can’t sleep and I need some stronger pain killers. That’s all: why would I tell them what really happened when it’s clear I want to be with you?”
At another point in the text exchange, Majors threatened to take his own life.
“Last night I considered killing myself versus coming home,” Majors wrote. “Last night you said you needed love and I tried to put my feelings aside. But I need love too. Or maybe I’m such a monster and I should just kill myself.”
He added, “This way of existence is miserable. I want to die.”
Majors was filming season 2 of the Disney+ series Loki at the time, and was living with Jabbari in London. The British choreographer and movement coach spent several days on the witness stand and alleged in earlier testimony that Majors had a pattern of abuse.
Friday marked the fifth day of the trial.
Majors, 34, is accused of assaulting Jabbari in a later incident on March 25, 2023, as they rode to dinner in the back of a chauffeured SUV.
The Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania star is charged with assault in the third degree, three counts of attempted assault in the third degree, one count of aggravated harassment in the second degree, and one count of harassment in the second degree.
He pleaded not guilty to the charges, which are all misdemeanors.
Defense attorney Priya Chaudhry has said Majors was the real victim, and alleged Jabbari slapped, clawed and physically attacked the actor during the confrontation in the SUV.
Majors faces up to a year in jail if convicted as charged. Meanwhile, his acting career hangs in the balance.
In October, Disney removed the actor’s new film Magazine Dreams from its release calendar. The critically acclaimed bodybuilding drama had been scheduled to arrive in theaters on Dec. 8, 2023. Instead, the studio announced the film’s release date was “unset,” with no new date announced.
According to published reports, Marvel Studios executives are starting to “reconsider” the actor’s role as villain Kang the Conqueror in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU).
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