The only witness to the incident at the heart of actor Jonathan Majors’ domestic violence case testified in Manhattan Criminal Court on Monday as the trial started to wind down.
Naweed Sarwar, the driver of the black SUV in which the “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” actor reportedly attacked his then-girlfriend Grace Jabbari on March 25, told jurors that he didn’t observe the scuffle because he was gazing “straight ahead” at the road.
Sarwar, however, testified that he had a “feeling” that Jabbari, a British dancer and movement teacher, was the aggressor while conversing with an Urdu translator who spoke bad English.
The driver of the carriage had “a feeling the girl had hit the boy…because of the way that she was fighting, and the sounds produced.”
Sarwar did not elaborate on the noises that led him to assume Jabbari “hit” Majors during the private car service journey from dinner in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, over the Manhattan Bridge, and into the “Creed III” actor’s Chelsea residence.
However, Sarwar alleges that he saw Majors shove Jabbari back into the vehicle after the altercation when it pulled over on Centre and Canal Streets in Chinatown – the only section of the incident recorded by security cameras.
“He was trying to throw her in the car,” he said in court. “He was saying, ‘Leave me alone. I have to go.'”
The driver also repeatedly testified that Majors was “trying to get rid” of Jabbari, despite Judge Michael Gaffey’s request that he “testify to what is happening, not what you think happened.”
Jabbari, 30, testified that the incident began when she took Majors’ phone after discovering proof that he was allegedly cheating on her – a text from another woman saying, “I wish I were kissing you.”
Sarwar stated during cross-questioning by Majors’ counsel that no blood could be located inside the back seat of the black Cadillac Escalade after the couple had exited the automobile.
Majors, 34, smiled throughout the driver’s testimony while wearing a gray double-breasted suit and carrying a gold-leaf bible at the defense table.
Later Monday, the doctor who examined Jabbari at Bellevue Hospital after the alleged assault testified that the dancer’s fractured right middle finger and a cut on the back of her right ear were “consistent” with her story that Majors assaulted her.
However, during cross-examination, Dr. William Chiang said that in many circumstances, someone experiencing a hit to the region of the ear and head where Jabbari claims she was struck would have instantly started bleeding.
Majors has pleaded not guilty to misdemeanor assault and harassment counts, for which he faces up to a year in prison if convicted.
Prosecutors want to conclude their case on Tuesday with the testimony of a last witness, an expert in the “dynamics of domestic violence.”
Majors’ attorneys want to call additional defense witnesses after that.
It was uncertain if Majors would testify in his defense on Monday night.
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