MANHATTAN (CN) — The driver of the SUV in which actor Jonathan Majors is accused of injuring his ex-girlfriend took the witness stand Monday, as the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office winds down their direct case against the Marvel actor.
Assistant District Attorney Michael Perez told jurors in his opening statement last week that the driver of the Escalade would testify that the "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania" star threw British dancer Grace Jabbari “like a football” into the car during a domestic altercation in Lower Manhattan last spring, but the driver’s testimony on Monday afternoon lacked the promised specific description of the charged assault.
Speaking through an Urdu language interpreter, private black car driver Naveed Sarwar testified that he kept his eyes “straight ahead” on the road as Majors and Jabbari were fighting in the back as the hired Escalade was crossing the Manhattan Bridge onto Canal Street, but had “a feeling the girl had hit the boy…because of the way that she was fighting, and the sounds produced.”
The Manhattan District Attorney’s office has accused Majors in a set of misdemeanor charges of assaulting Jabbari after she read a romantic text message sent to his phone by another woman. Prosecutors claim Majors grabbed Jabbari’s hand with such force he fractured one of her fingers, then pulled her arm behind her back and struck her on the side of the head.
"The girl became very angry,” after Majors refused to let her look at his phone, Sarwar testified through the broken English of the Urdu language interpreter
Sarwar testified he picked up the couple at Majors’ Chelsea apartment on the evening of March 24, 2023, and took them to see a play at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in the Fort Greene neighborhood of Brooklyn, and later drove them back to Manhattan after they had dinner.
“The boy wanted to get rid of the girl and he opened the door,” Sarwar said.
“He was trying to get rid of her,” he repeated even after the judge told him not to speculate on the reasons for what he had seen."
“He was saying, ‘Leave me alone. I have to go’,” the driver testified. “He was not doing anything, she was doing it.”
Sarwar testified Majors and Jabbari both left the car and argued outside by the corner of Centre Street and Canal Street, coincidentally just a few blocks from the Manhattan criminal court building.
Surveillance video evidence played during Sarwar’s testimony showed the couple tussling outside the SUV. “He was trying to throw her in the car,” he testified.
The driver testified he saw Majors "pushing her back into the car to get rid of her,” but couldn't recall how many times the actor had pushed.
Judge Michael Gaffey sustained an objection when prosecutors asked Sarwar how hard Majors had pushed Jabbari.
Majors’ lawyers’ brief cross-examination of Sarwar consisted of two questions in the two minutes.
“Did you ever find any blood in your vehicle after that night,” attorney Seth Zuckerman asked. “Did you ever see at any point that night Mr. Majors being in the third row of the vehicle,” he also asked. Sarwar responded to both in the negative.
During the defense’s opening argument, Zuckerman told jurors that the driver had described Jabbari as a “psycho girl” in his recollection of the fight, but Sarwar did not use that description during his 30-minute direct testimony.
Prosecutors are expected to rest their case on Tuesday after calling an emergency room doctor and domestic violence expert.
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