Jonathan Majors was found guilty of two of the charges filed against him by ex-girlfriend Grace Jabbari earlier this week, but the actor is not expected to serve much, if any, time behind bars.
The jury found the Loki and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania star guilty of two misdemeanour counts of harassment and assault, as well as not guilty on two additional charges of intentional assault in the third degree and aggravated harassment in the second degree.
Majors is facing up to a year in prison, probation, a fine, and/or community service, but members of the legal community believe the actor will get little to any jail time and may also have grounds for an appeal.
“Since it’s the defendant’s first conviction, although technically he faces one year of jail, the judge will 99 percent give him three years probation, anger management and possibly some community service. Mr. Majors is not getting jail time,” said Cary London, a Manhattan-based civil rights and criminal defence attorney at Shulman & Hill.
As for the appeal, experts think Majors will likely point to "missteps" by his defence team and the charges themselves.
The jury returned a split verdict, deciding not to convict on the more serious assault and harassment charges. This may indicate that they “saw the situation as more nuanced than what the prosecutor presented,” which Majors could attempt to exploit.
During the defence's cross-examination, they employed a line of questioning that the judge said “lacked specificity” and allowed the prosecution to bring in Molineux evidence, which is "evidence of prior uncharged crimes, that had previously been deemed inadmissible."
“Obviously, this kind of thing can sound very bad to a jury and Majors may argue that the jury should not have heard about them, especially since they were not specifically discussing the assault he was on trial for,” said Lance Fletcher, a criminal defence attorney in Manhattan and a former prosecutor.
While this appeal could ultimately work out for Majors, it will do very little for his already tarnished professional reputation and public perception. The actor was officially fired from his role as Kang in the Marvel Cinematic Universe almost immediately after the verdict came in, and had already been dropped by his PR firm, agent, and several other projects.
Majors may manage to avoid jail time, but whether he will be able to salvage his career is another matter.
Sentencing is expected to take place in February.