Jonathan Majors' Accuser Grace Jabbari Testifies About His 'Rage' as She Takes the Stand at Assault Trial

Jonathan Majors, who was present in the courtroom during the testimony Tuesday, has pleaded not guilty

The alleged fight between Jonathan Majors and his then-girlfriend of two years, Grace Jabbari, started with a text message from a woman saved in the Creed III actor’s phone as Cleopatra, prosecutors claimed in opening statements of his assault trial Monday morning.

Leaning on his shoulder as they returned from dinner together in March, Jabbari, prosecutors allege, saw a text flash onto his phone with a link to D’Angelo’s song “Lady,” and Cleopatra’s message: “Wish I was kissing you.”

Jabbari took the stand Tuesday morning, rarely looking at Majors, who kept his face turned to his lap at his seat at the defense table. Dressed in a gray-and-red plaid suit, the 30-year-old British woman, who is a dancer, cried often, wiping her eyes with a tissue and apologizing to the judge for her tears.

She discussed the many times she said she had been scared of setting off the man who she described as falling into easy “rage and aggression.”

“His face kind of changes when he gets into that place,” Jabbari told the jury. “He’s a big guy so you just want to step back.”

Related: Jonathan Majors’ Assault Trial: Opening Arguments Address Race and Alleged 'Abuse'

Majors, 34, is facing two charges of assault in the third degree, aggravated harassment in the second degree, and harassment in the second degree for the alleged fight in March.

Majors, who faces up to one year in jail if convicted by a Manhattan jury of six, has maintained his innocence from the beginning and entered a plea of not guilty to all charges through his lawyers last week.

Related: A Timeline of Jonathan Majors' Legal Troubles: From His March Arrest to Trial Over Alleged Assault

In the criminal complaint obtained by PEOPLE that includes Jabbari’s statements describing her alleged injuries, Jabbari said she felt Majors “grab my right arm, place it behind my body, and use his hands to twist my right forearm and right middle finger,” and that he then proceeded to “strike me with his hand across my right ear” and “push me back into the vehicle using both of his hands causing me to fall backwards.”

No arrests occurred at the time of the fight that spilled onto the streets of Chinatown that March night, but the following morning Majors called 911, saying that Jabbari was unresponsive in his bedroom closet, according to narratives by prosecutors and defense lawyers in court.

Emergency responders took Jabbari to the hospital and arrested Majors.

Then in October, Jabbari herself was arrested for alleged incidents occurring the same night.

Her arrest stemmed from a counter-complaint that Majors had filed months after the alleged attack, reportedly claiming that Jabbari had been “drunk and hysterical” that March night and had attacked him not only on the day she claims he attacked her, but on other previous occasions that he had never before reported.

Last week Judge Michael Gaffey, who is presiding over the misdemeanor trial, called the case “very unusual,” contrasting the actor to indigent New Yorkers, who he suggested would not normally have been able to cross-file allegations against their accuser months after the fact, as Majors did, leading to Jabbari’s arrest in October.

Referring to Majors, the judge asked: “If this was an indigent New Yorker would this arrest have happened?”

Related: Jonathan Majors and Meagan Good Kiss in Courtroom, Source Says Relationship 'Solidified' Before Trial

Prosecutors have declined to prosecute Jabbari, and the case has been sealed, with Assistant District Attorney Kelli Galaway explaining to the judge last week that there was “no prosecutorial merit” to Majors’s claims, a comment gaining a head shake from Majors’ current girlfriend, actress Meagan Good, who routinely attends court.

Nicole Branca, who is not connected to the case, is the executive director of New Destiny Housing, a New York City nonprofit that provides housing and services to homeless people and their children victimized by domestic violence. Branca tells PEOPLE that such counter-claims are "common for perpetrators of domestic violence,” noting that such claims are often part of an effort “to deflect their abuses back onto their victims in an attempt to minimize their own crimes."

Related: Jonathan Majors Gets Support from Girlfriend Meagan Good and Her Mother at His Assault Trial

Painting Jabbari as a scorned ex made villainous by her heartbreak, one of Majors’s lawyers, Priya Chaudhry, told the jury in opening statements Monday that after the fight Majors had broken up by text with the woman who had hoped to marry him, and that shortly after their altercation — in which Chaudhry claimed only Majors was injured – Jabbari had gone clubbing, drinking and dancing into the early hours of the morning.

Telling the jury that a witness on the scene would describe Jabbari as a “psycho-girl,” Chaudhry added that after Majors broke up with her and “canceled her Mrs. Majors plan,” Jabbari decided to accuse Majors of domestic violence as retribution.

Among the evidence presented at trial, Jabbari showed the jury a photograph she said she had taken after a fight with Majors, who she said had thrown “anything within reaching distance," including candles, denting a bedroom wall with an object and shattering glass on the floor.

“I took the photo because the shift in his temper was something I was aware of, and I just wanted to remember," Jabbari said. "I knew I kept forgiving him, but I just wanted to have a bit of a memory of him.”

Majors has not made a comment coming and going from trial, which started last week, though he could later take the stand in his trial, which is expected to last several weeks.

Heather Cucolo — who is not involved in the case but is a professor at New York Law School who specializes in sexual violent predator law — says “gender paradigm stereotypes” are commonly used to demonize women alleging abuse.

“Calling a woman 'crazy' or 'psycho' is a form of abuse itself — emotional abuse — and perpetrates a dangerous stereotype,” Cucolo adds. “The misperception that she somehow caused or is responsible for the resulting violence is dangerous because any reference to provocation shifts the blame to the victim while minimizing the responsibility of the abuser’s actions.”

If you are experiencing domestic violence, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233, or go to thehotline.org. All calls are toll-free and confidential. The hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages.

For more People news, make sure to sign up for our newsletter!

Read the original article on People.