Will Jonathan Majors Serve Jail Time After Guilty Verdict? Lawyers Weigh In

Jonathan Majors was found guilty by a split verdict on Monday of assaulting and harassing his ex-girlfriend Grace Jabbari.

The Belief III talent, 34, was found guilty of two charges: misdemeanor assault in the third degree, recklessly causing bodily harm, and harassment in the second degree, a misdemeanor. He was acquitted of the criminal offense of third-degree assault with intent to cause bodily harm and second-degree aggravated harassment.

Majors faces up to a year in prison when he is sentenced on February 6. What happens next? PEOPLE spoke to Brett Ward, a partner at Blank Rome, and Kate Mangels, a litigation partner at Kinsella Holley, both of whom are unrelated to the case.

“I’d say it’s highly unlikely that he’s going to play any significant minutes,” Ward says. Although misdemeanors are punishable by “up to a year in prison” in New York, he says, such a severe sentence would be “typically unlikely” with options like behavior programs and probation also on the judge.

Jonathan Majors. Karwai Tang/WireImage

But the judge may have chosen the Majors case because of the spotlight shining on the trial and potentially “wanting to show that this kind of behavior will not be tolerated, [that] you’re not attacking your intimate partner,” adds Ward.

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The Majors are also likely to appeal, he adds. And if he’s sentenced to prison, “he can serve it,” Ward says. “Or he could try to stay at it, pending an appeal. And if it’s not prison, then he’ll take care of whatever he has to take care of in terms of whatever kind of program or probation the court requires.”

When asked why the jurors found The Land of Lovecraft actor pleaded not guilty to misdemeanor assault in the third degree and misdemeanor aggravated harassment in the second degree, both more serious charges, Ward said the court could find that Majors’ actions were likely not premeditated.

“That tells me that the jury felt that this was not so one-sided, and that this was more of a crime of emotion than planning, that this was some kind of heated situation,” he says, calling the jury’s findings “more of a compromised verdict.”

Jonathan Majors and Meagan Good cry in court as defense says actor is ‘innocent’ in closing arguments

Mangels added, “It really appears that the prosecution could not show the jury enough evidence of Major’s mental state to show intent. Apparently, they were able to show enough evidence that the attack took place and that there were injuries. But what was missing was his mental state.”

Ward notes that two pieces of evidence went in Majors’ favor.

Jonathan Majors, 2023 Academy Awards Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic

His tougher girlfriend testified that she “first grabbed the phone out of his hand when she saw the message from what was said to be another woman. And two, the last part of the video, he ran away and she was chasing him,” the law partner tells PEOPLE.

Overall, Ward calls Majors’ push for a jury trial a mistake, especially if a plea deal was on the table.

“Fighting it and allowing it to become the public spectacle it has become and now having a conviction is a mistake,” he says.

Jonathan Majors as Kang the Conqueror. Jay Maidment/Marvel Studios

Following Monday’s ruling, PEOPLE confirmed that Marvel Studios has terminated Majors, who played Kang the Conqueror in 2023. Ant Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and appeared in the current season of the Disney+ series Loki.

It was also expected to be featured in other upcoming Marvel Cinematic Universe titles, including the fifth the Avengers movie.

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Source: HIS Education