Jonathan Majors faces anywhere from no jail to one year behind bars at Monday sentencing
A Manhattan judge last week rejected a request by actor Jonathan Majors to overturn his conviction.
Majors is now due to be sentenced April 8 on harassment and misdemeanor assault.
The judge found no grounds to overturn Majors' December domestic violence conviction.
Former Marvel star Jonathan Majors faces anywhere from no jail to a year behind bars on Monday, when he'll be sentenced in Manhattan for last year's domestic violence conviction.
A jury found in December that Majors recklessly injured then-girlfriend Grace Jabbari as they fought over his cellphone in the back seat of a chauffeured car on the streets of Chinatown a year ago.
The jury found Majors guilty of harassment and misdemeanor reckless assault, but acquitted him on charges of intentional assault and aggravated harassment.
The verdict indicates jurors did not unanimously believe prosecutors had proven Jabbari's injuries — a broken finger and a cut behind her ear — were intentionally caused.
It's unclear if Majors will speak during the sentencing. He has maintained that Jabbari caused her own injuries hours after the fight, in a drunken fall while she was alone. Continuing to deny he caused her injuries could work against him at sentencing.
Majors had fought his conviction on grounds of judicial error and insufficiency of evidence.
But last week, Criminal Court Judge Michael Gaffey, who presided over the December trial, denied the defense motion to set aside the verdict.
"Jonathan feels disappointed by the outcome of the motion, yet he upholds respect for the process," defense attorney Priya Chaudhry said.
"He continues to draw strength from his friends, fans, family, and dogs, harnessing his art and creativity.
"As he eagerly anticipates closing this chapter, he looks forward to redirecting his time and energy fully toward his family and his art," she said.
There was no judicial error in asking the jury to consider whether Majors caused Jabbari's injuries recklessly, Gaffey ruled in his four-page decision.
"There was a reasonable view of the evidence to support that Defendant acted recklessly," Gaffey wrote.
Jabbari had testified that after she grabbed Majors' phone, he tried to "pry the phone out of my fingers," and was "really trying to let me let go of the object I was holding," the judge noted.
Jabbari also testified that Majors struck her in the head as they continued to fight over the phone, the judge wrote.
It was "reasonable" for jurors to see both injuries as an unintended consequence of the couple's fight, the judge wrote.
Gaffey's ruling next addressed the defense claim that the judge should have explained the laws surrounding the legal defense of "justification" to jurors before deliberations.
But the defense never presented a justification defense, the judge noted. Instead, the defense "argued that Ms. Jabbari sustained her injuries later in the night after she left Defendant," the judge wrote.
Finally, the judge wrote there was sufficient trial evidence to support that Majors was guilty of harassment in the second degree.
The evidence included Jabbari's testimony and street surveillance video showing Majors pushing her back into the car. The defense had countered that Majors was trying to keep Jabbari from being hit by traffic.
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