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Actor Jonathan Majors faces counselling instead of jail time after assault conviction

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Jonathan Majors attends 2023 Vanity Fair Oscar After Party Arrivals at Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts on 12 March 2023 in Beverly Hills, California. (Robert Smith/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images)
Jonathan Majors attends 2023 Vanity Fair Oscar After Party Arrivals at Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts on 12 March 2023 in Beverly Hills, California. (Robert Smith/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images)
  • US actor Jonathan Majors was sentenced Monday to a year of domestic violence counselling.
  • He avoided jail time after being convicted of assaulting and harassing his then-girlfriend - a saga that cost him a prime role in Marvel's superhero blockbusters.
  • Marvel dropped the 34-year-old Majors - whose villainous character Kang the Conqueror was due to be front and centre in at least two upcoming films - after his conviction in December 2023.

US actor Jonathan Majors was sentenced Monday to a year of domestic violence counselling but avoided jail time after being convicted of assaulting and harassing his then-girlfriend - a saga that cost him a prime role in Marvel's superhero blockbusters.

Marvel dropped the 34-year-old Majors - whose villainous character Kang the Conqueror was due to be front and centre in at least two upcoming films - after his conviction in December 2023.

Majors debuted as Kang in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania earlier in 2023 and was set to appear in at least two subsequent Avengers films - the top franchise in the Marvel universe.

READ | Jonathan Majors convicted of assault, dropped by Marvel

On Monday, a New York judge ordered Majors, who had faced up to one year in prison, to attend 52 weeks of "in-person domestic violence programming" and pursue therapy, the prosecutor's office told AFP.

Virtual counselling and therapy would be an option if Majors were to secure a job outside Los Angeles, where he lives. If he were to be arrested again for any reason or violated the terms of his sentence in any other way, he could face jail time.

Majors, also noted for his work in Creed III opposite Michael B. Jordan, was arrested in March 2023 due to a confrontation involving his then-partner Grace Jabbari during a car ride in Manhattan.

The court heard that Majors had received a text message and Jabbari had sought to take his phone, believing the communication to be from another woman, local media reported.

There was then a struggle, with the pair's legal representatives trading accusations about who attacked whom.

Majors was found guilty of assault in the third degree and harassment in the second degree.

"The evidence presented throughout this trial illustrated a cycle of psychological and emotional abuse and escalating patterns of coercion," Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said in December.

Majors has his breakthrough in 2019's The Last Black Man in San Francisco. He also appeared in Spike Lee's Da 5 Bloods before landing a role in HBO series Lovecraft Country, for which he earned an Emmy nomination.


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