Stanley Majors, 2016 mugshot. Courtesy
Haifa Jabara was on her evening walk last September when the car struck her from behind, knocking her unconscious.
Her shoes landed 44 feet away from her crumpled body, and Tulsa police almost immediately suspected Jabara’s neighbor, Stanley Vernon Majors.
Hours earlier, Majors, also referred to in court documents as Vernon Stanley Majors, or Stan Majors, had called in a complaint against the family for an illegally parked car near his house.
That testimony was given by Tulsa Police Officer Steve Theimer during a preliminary hearing earlier this year in a felony case against Majors, accused of striking Jabara on purpose that evening after years of discord between he and his Lebanese neighbors.
The Frontier reviewed the transcript of that hearing Tuesday as Tulsa police worked to complete the homicide case against Majors, arrested Friday in the fatal shooting of Khalid Jabara, 37.
Theimer testified that at about 2 p.m. Sept. 12, 2015, he spoke with Haifa Jabara about the parking violation, opting to give her a verbal warning about parking infractions after she agreed to move the vehicle. Majors barreled out of his home and began to argue with Theimer that he should write Haifa Jabara a traffic ticket.
Theimer said he explained he was not going to do that and Majors responded with a “fairly abrasive” tirade, calling the family “filthy Lebanese who throw gay people off of the roof.”
Majors married Stephen Schmauss in 2014, shortly after same-sex marriage was legalized in Oklahoma, records show.
Khalid Jabara. Courtesy
There had been years of problems between Majors and the Jabara family, neighbors who lived just south of 91st Street and Memorial Drive.
Haifa Jabara had filed a protective order against Majors, who in turn filed one against her son, Khalid. Majors allegedly violated that protective order twice. Haifa alleged that in March 2015, he yelled “Fuck you,” and “I want to kill you,” and last September he crashed his car into her, sending her to the hospital with a litany of serious injuries.
Haifa testified in the preliminary hearing Jan. 5 that she was walking near her home Sept. 12, 2015, when she heard “a big bump” and then woke up near the curb in a puddle of blood. The 65-year-old woman needed a walker to make it to the witness stand: she had a broken ankle hand, ribs, and leg as well as a gash on her head and a bloody nose.
Haifa told prosecutor Brett Mize that Majors had lived next door to her for “three or four years.” and described him as a “hateful,” “unfriendly” neighbor.
“(He’s) just a hateful person, just a hateful person,” she said.
Theimer testified that by the time he arrived to the scene of the crash, a large pool of blood had collected. A firefighter pointed out Haifa’s shoes to Theimer, who said the distance between the blood and the shoes indicated the crash had been particularly violent.
“When someone is struck at a decent rate of speed, one of the first things that actually flies from the body are the shoes,” he said. “That’s just from the force of the strike.”
The crash that day has gained new significance following the shooting death of Khalid Jabara on Friday. Because of the strained relationship between the neighbors, incidents between them are being scrutinized by people wondering why Majors, a convicted felon accused of threatening the family for years, had been released from jail after the crash.
When prosecutors charged Majors with the crash last September, it was initially filed as “leaving the scene of an injury accident,” a felony, but a less severe accusation than purposefully striking someone with a car. On the same day as the preliminary hearing, that charge was amended to assault and battery with a deadly weapon, a more serious charge that alleged Majors struck the woman on purpose.
That may be due, at least in part, to Theimer’s testimony. He said in the hearing that because he had a crash site and no vehicle, he first attempted to locate skid marks to make sure it was a vehicle that had struck the woman.
“Cases that I’ve worked in the past, or been involved with or I’ve observed, the vehicle usually makes an attempt to stop, and so you find skids,” Theimer said. “In this occasion there were no skids.”
Officer Darrell Ross took the stand after Theimer and testified he responded to the crash scene after hearing Haifa Jabara’s name. Ross said he had worked in that area for years and knew that Majors “had a dislike” for his neighbors.
Ross said that he had been to the residences as many as three times in a day, and that Majors had called the police station in that district a few times to complain about the Jabaras. Ross looked at Majors’ driveway and noticed his silver Kia missing. He knew what vehicle Majors drove because he had taken a report previously where Majors accused Khalid Jabara of keying his car.
Recognizing “a significant amount of speed” had to be involved in the crash, Ross said he knew any vehicle involved would not have gone far, and they eventually tracked down Majors and the damaged vehicle at a nearby apartment complex. Ross said as he neared Majors, who was already talking to another officer while urinating through the open fly of his pants, he heard them interacting.
“How is she,” Majors asked.
“Who?” the officer said.
“Haifa,” Majors responded.
Ross said Majors’ damaged Kia was nearby, with a crumpled hood and a bloody, destroyed front windshield.
Ross said Majors eventually told them a rabbit had jumped in front of his car, and then he said Haifa Jabara jumped in front of his car, and “he apologized. He said he was drunk, and he said he’s always drunk and we know that he’s drunk and we just let him drive around.”
Majors stayed in the Tulsa Jail for months following the hearing. He was released when attorney Marvin Lizama took his case over May 16 and requested a bond hearing. (Criminal defendants who use a bail bond company generally have to come up with about 10 percent of the total bail amount, which is known as the bond.)
Majors was initially granted $30,000 bail by District Judge Bill LaFortune, and he posted a bond about a week later. That was likely granted due to a “bond schedule”— a list of suggested amounts — that recommended $30,000 bail for assault and battery with a deadly weapon.
However, that’s only if the alleged crime was termed to be “non-domestic” in nature, and it’s hard to argue that years of in-fighting between neighbors was non-domestic.
Had the charge been deemed “domestic,” the amount would have been up to LaFortune’s discretion, and he might have followed the prosecutor’s request of holding Majors without bond. (The state requested a $300,000 bond in the alternative, court records show.)
Majors’ bond was eventually raised to $60,000, but by then he was already out of jail, and he paid the increased amount immediately, returning home next door to the Jabara family.
Reached for comment, LaFortune told The Frontier he was barred by ethics rules from commenting on a pending case he had presided over.
Tulsa County District Attorney Steve Kunzweiler called the case a “system failure” and said the Jabara family did “everything you could ask a victim to do.”
“If you’re reviewing it after the fact, there’s no question it’s a system fail,” Kunzweiler said. “We did what I felt we needed to do to bring (the dangers Majors presented) to the court’s attention, but it wasn’t enough, and I feel obligated to examine this on a larger scale and see if there’s another mechanism to help people in an instance like this.”
Homicide case against Majors continues
Less than an hour before Majors allegedly shot Khalid Jabara multiple times, killing him, police responded to the Jabaras’ home in the 9300 block of of South 85th East Avenue after Khalid complained of suspicious activity.
On Monday night, the Jabara family issued a statement, stating that Khalid had called police before the homicide, saying he was afraid Majors had a gun.
However Tulsa Police have not provided a written report of that call. Responding to an Open Records Act request from The Frontier, TPD released reports made at both the Jabara home and Majors’ home since Jan. 1, 2010. Counting Friday’s homicide, there are 18 total calls, most of which fall under “vandalism,” “miscellaneous mischief,” “trespassing,” or “threats.”
A spokesman for TPD’s records department said it was possible a report was made of the initial call and had not yet been given to the records department, though that seems unlikely since the records division had a copy of the homicide report.
TPD spokesman Leland Ashley said he had listened to the 911 call made prior to the shooting, and said the caller had only notified police of “suspicious activity,” saying he heard tapping on his window and looked outside to see Majors’ garage door closing.
The police department has faced some public criticism this week, with some on social media questioning whether police could have stopped the homicide before it happened. The family’s statement says: “Police came (to the earlier phone call) and told him there was nothing to be done. Minutes later, the suspect murdered our brother with four shots.”
Homicide Sgt. Dave Walker told The Frontier in an email Tuesday that police are reviewing what was said on the 911 call prior to the homicide, but added there was “no evidence presented that would have allowed us to arrest Majors based on Khalid’s call.”
“We are reviewing what was said on the call and what was relayed to the officers, and I do not see where we could have done much with what as presented,” Walker said. “There is some comment (on the call) about hearing gunshots but Khalid also said it was as if someone knocking on his window.”
Walker said police knocked on Majors’ door, but no one answered.
“About all that could be done was knock on the door. If Majors does not answer and have a consensual conversation, we are done at that point,” he said.
Fundraiser for the Jabara family
The Council on American-Islamic Relations partnered with the Jabara family to raise money in the wake of the death of Khalid Jabara.
