Jonathan Majors recording calling himself “a great man” and other evidence unsealed amid trial

The prosecution rested its case against Jonathan Majors on Wednesday, and Judge Michael Gaffey approved the release of evidence that had previously been shared with the jury. That included surveillance and body cam footage in connection to the March 25 incident which led to Majors being charged with assault and aggravated harassment, as well as text messages and audio of other exchanges between Majors and his ex-girlfriend Grace Jabbari. Those exchanges were unsealed after Judge Gaffey ruled that the defense had opened the door to it with their cross-examination of Jabbari, per Deadline.

William Jackson Harper on “Ant-Man,” “Love Life,” and more

Jabbari’s secretly recorded audio of Majors lecturing her after she had brought a friend home from the pub was played for the jury last week. “How dare you come home drunk and disturb the peace of our house when we have a plan. … I would like to get to the point where your friends know what job I’m on and go, ‘I think Grace is going to be out of commision.’ … Do you understand that?” The actor rants in the recording (via Rolling Stone). “Grace has to be in a certain mindset, to support—Coretta Scott King, do you know who that is? That’s Martin Luther King’s wife. Michelle Obama, Barack Obama’s wife.”

“Let me just lay it out for you. I’m just gonna say this—my temper, my shit, my [trauma], blah blah blah—all that said, I’m a great man. A great man. I am doing great things, not just for me but for my culture and for the world,” he goes on to say. “That is actually the position I’m in. That’s real. I’m not being a dick about it. I didn’t ask for it. I’ve worked and that’s the situation. The woman that supports me—that I support—needs to be a great woman and make sacrifices the way that man is making for her and for them ultimately. Last night, two nights ago, you did not do that. You did not do that, which took away from the plan. And the plan is everything.”

Video evidence shows the aftermath of the car altercation that led to Majors’ arrest. Though there is no video of what occurred inside the car (the details of which are disputed between the prosecution and defense), video shows Majors trying to put Jabbari back in the car before the couple crosses to the sidewalk and Majors runs away from her. Included in the video evidence is body cam footage of police discovering Jabbari unconscious on the floor of the couple’s walk-in closet.

On the 911 call, which was also released, Majors told law enforcement that he thought the incident was a suicide attempt. (Jabbari testified that she’d taken two sleeping pills and was dealing with the pain of her injuries; NYPD officers who testified on Tuesday said they found no drugs or pill bottles at the scene that would indicate attempted suicide or overdose, per Variety.) “She’s my ex-partner. We broke up. I came back. She sent me text messages insinuating as much. I stayed in a hotel last night. I came home this morning,” Majors said on the phone (via The Hollywood Reporter). “I banged on the door. I’ve been at the apartment for about 20 minutes now. I banged on the door. I couldn’t get in. I finally went downstairs and asked the doorman to help us. And they let me in via the handyman.”

Also amongst the evidence were photos Jabbari took of her injuries from March 25 as well as images of the alleged aftermath of one of Majors’ previous rages, in which he’d apparently thrown items and broken things. Text message exchanges in which Majors discouraged Jabbari from going to a doctor in a previous incident and threatened suicide himself were also released. The trial continues as the defense makes its case; it is yet unclear if Majors will take the stand to testify.