Marvel star Jonathan Majors avoids jail, sentenced to domestic violence programming

NEW YORK -- Jonathan Majors, whose promising acting career stalled after a domestic violence conviction in New York, was sentenced Monday to domestic violence programming after the judge decided "jail is not necessary."

Majors must complete a 52-week in-person batterers intervention program in Los Angeles, continue mental health counseling and stay away from the victim.

Majors appeared in court in a black turtleneck beneath a dark grey double breasted suit. He carried a red stocking cap. He shook hands with or embraced a number of supporters who wore matching red stocking caps. Majors embraced his girlfriend, Meagan Good, before taking his seat at the defense table, where he read from the bible before the judge took the bench.

Manhattan Criminal Court Judge Michael Gaffey handed down the sentence after Majors was found guilty late last year of assaulting his then-girlfriend Grace Jabbari, who delivered a victim impact statement in which she asserted Majors "remains a danger to others."

Jabbari spoke of "extreme physical and emotional pain" she said she sustained "both immediately and over the months that followed." She appeared in a light pink pantsuit and stood at a podium as she read from a prepared statement.

"When I was with him I became a different version of myself. I was small, scared and vulnerable," Jabbari said. "He is not sorry. He has not accepted responsibility. And he will do it again. He will abuse other women."

Majors faced a maximum sentence of 364 days in jail but the Manhattan district attorney's office did not seek jail time. Instead, prosecutor Kelli Galaway said domestic violence programming along with an order of protection against Jabbari would suffice.

"This defendant is no longer cloaked with the presumption of innocence," Galaway said. "Despite the jury's verdict, the defendant has still refused to accept any responsibility for his actions."

Defense attorney Priya Chaudhry said Majors declined to speak at sentencing due to Jabbari's civil lawsuit against him.

"This has been the most challenging year of Mr. Majors' life," Chaudhry said. "He promises to complete whatever program the court orders with an open heart." She added "We are optimistic Mr. Majors will work in the film industry again soon."

With roles in "The Last Black Man in San Francisco," "Creed III" and "Ant Man and the Wasp: Quantumania," Majors' star was rising before he was convicted of misdemeanor assault and harassment, a violation, in December. Marvel dropped Majors from future projects.

Last week, Judge Gaffey declined to throw out the conviction as Majors requested.

"The jury reasonably could have concluded that Defendant recklessly caused physical injury to Ms. Jabbari," Gaffey wrote.

Jabbari said Majors tried to pry his phone out of her hands after she grabbed it when she saw he received a text message from another woman. She said he yanked and twisted her arm and struck the side of her head, causing her to suffer a broken finger and a lacerated ear.

"My head was resting on his shoulder," Jabbari told the jury during trial. "We were chatting and he was scrolling on his phone" when the message appeared: "Oh, how I wish I was kissing you."

Jabbari testified that after she grabbed the phone "I felt a heavy thud on top of me. What I knew to be the weight of him on top of me and him trying to pry the phone out of my fingers."

Majors, who did not testify at trial, portrayed Jabbari as the aggressor in a subsequent interview with ABC News. "She went to grab the phone. I held the phone. I pulled the phone back. She came on top of me, squeezed my face, slapped me."