An Oklahoma man was charged with first-degree murder and hate crimes on Tuesday for allegedly shooting his Lebanese neighbor after years of ethnic harassment against him and his family.
The charges filed in Tulsa County against Stanley Vernon Majors for the murder of Khalid Jabara include felony possession of a firearm after a former felony conviction, a misdemeanor of malicious intimidation and harassment, and a misdemeanor of threatening a violent act.
Majors is accused of shooting Jabara on his family’s front porch on August 12 while out of jail on bond for a hit-and-run attack on Jabara’s mother, Haifa. The Jabaras and police have documented years of harassment directed by Majors towards the family, including ethnic slurs, late-night visits, and threatening phone calls.
Majors routinely called the Jabaras “filthy Lebanese,” “Mooslems,” and “dirty Arabs,” though the family is Christian.
According to the Tulsa World, the intimidation and harassment misdemeanor is a hate crime charge and alleges that Majors “unlawfully, maliciously, willfully, wrongfully and intentionally, and without justifiable or excusable cause, by maliciously and with specific intent to intimidate and harass because of race, color, religion, ancestry and national origin,” threatened to harm the Jabara family between 2013 and the date of Khalid Jabara’s death.
In a statement sent to TPM Tuesday by family friend and spokeswoman Rebecca Abou-Chedid, the Jabaras said they “are encouraged that the government is marshaling the full weight of law to respond appropriately to the heinous crime inflicted upon us.”
They called the hate crime charge “a much-needed and powerful statement” on ethnic-based harassment but said they still feel that the murder was the “preventable” result of a flawed justice system.
“Despite the overwhelming evidence we marshalled of a palpable threat of danger and hate facing us on a daily basis, the existing legal mechanisms proved insufficient to protect our beloved Khalid and our mother,” the family said.
Haifa Jabara had a protective order against Majors that prohibited him from being within 25 feet from her, which he twice violated, the second time by allegedly hitting her with his car in September 2015. Majors was charged with assault and battery with a deadly weapon for that attack, and held without bond ahead of his March 2017 trial date. In May, A Tulsa County judge set bond for Majors in the hit-and-run attack against the recommendations of the District Attorney’s office and without stipulating any conditions. Majors allegedly fatally shot Khalid Jabara weeks later.
In addition to the charges Majors now faces for his actions towards the Jabaras, the other misdemeanor count prosecutors announced Tuesday relates to his alleged threat towards another woman who lived on their block who witnessed the August 12 shooting.
The neighbor, identified by the Tulsa World as Justina Majed, left her own home after hearing gunshots and saw Majors standing over Khalid Jabara’s body. Majors allegedly told Majed, who is unnamed in the arrest report, that he would shoot her too if she didn’t leave.
