Stanley Majors, 2016 mugshot. Courtesy
About three months before Stanley Vernon Majors allegedly shot to death a neighbor whose family he had apparently terrorized for years, the Tulsa County District Attorney’s office pleaded with a judge to keep Majors behind bars.
Majors, 61, was arrested Friday after allegedly killing Khalid Jabara, his 37-year-old neighbor. Jabara, who is Lebanese and was a caretaker for his aging mother, was shot multiple times, police said.
Majors has a lengthy history with the Jabara family. Jabara’s mother filed a protective order against him, accusing him of hurling racial slurs at the family and sexually harassing her.
Majors was previously arrested twice following incidents at the family’s residence in the 9300 block of South 85th East Avenue. Court records state police were called to the Jabara home as many as three times a day to intervene, and it proved difficult to keep him away from his neighbors.
Khalid Jabara. Courtesy
Last year, Majors struck Jabara’s mother with his car, causing serious injuries. He was charged with violating the protective order and was held without bail for eight months in the Tulsa Jail.
In May, when Tulsa District Judge Bill LaFortune granted Majors $30,000 bail, the DA’s office objected.
Records show that two days after Majors posted bond and was released from jail, both sides returned to LaFortune’s courtroom. Prosecutors painted him as a violent threat to society, noting that he lived only a house away from the Jabara family.
Prosecutors asked LaFortune for two things: that Majors be returned to jail and held without bond. If that wasn’t possible, they asked the judge to beef up his bail to $300,000. (Criminal defendants who use a bail bond company generally have to come up with about 10 percent of the bail amount.)
Prosecutors argued during the hearing that Majors had “a wanton disregard for the life” of Haifa Jabara and for the safety of the public, he should remain behind bars.
LaFortune did increase Major’s bond, but only to $60,000. Since Majors was in court, but not in custody, he was allowed to post the bond at the courthouse and never re-entered the jail.
LaFortune told The Frontier Monday that since the cases against Majors were ongoing, he was legally prohibited from discussing his decisions regarding the murder suspect’s bail.
Less than 12 weeks after Majors was released from jail, Khalid Jabara was dead. Majors was arrested, but not before police surrounded his home, believing he had barricaded himself inside. After receiving no response, police sought a search warrant to enter the home, but an alert officer spotted Majors hiding outside the nearby Hardesty Regional Library.
A witness told police he saw Majors shoot Jabara outside the home after the two wrestled on the ground. Majors reportedly told the witness “to leave or he would shoot them, to (sic),” according to an affidavit filed last week.
Majors is in the Tulsa Jail now for the fifth time in less than four years, booked on complaints of first-degree murder and possession of a firearm after former conviction of a felony.
Despite alleged racist statements by Majors toward the Jabara family, it’s unclear if he’ll be charged with a hate crime. First Assistant District Attorney John David Luton told The Frontier he has not yet received the case from Tulsa Police, and without knowing what it will disclose, he could not comment on a possible hate crime.
Adam Soltani, executive director of The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), posted on social media about Jabara’s death Monday, saying that a fear of diversity by some in America will lead to incidents such as Jabara’s death.
“On Friday night, a Lebanese Christian man was murdered in cold blood by a perpetrator who had called him a ‘Dirty Arab.’ This is the reality that we have to live with,” Soltani wrote. “The bigotry, hatred, and fear that have spawned Islamophobia and xenophobia have led to an environment in which we must live in fear for our own lives.”
Soltani’s post referenced the current national climate and presidential race.
“Many will be quick to blame (Donald) Trump for this madness, and truly he has played a part in propagating hatred and bigotry. But the truth of the matter is that racism and fear/hate of the other is a deeply entrenched in our country’s history. Nothing will change, nothing can change unless we deal with the root cause of the problem, much of which lies in white supremacy and fear of the growing diversity of our nation.”
‘Ugly words’ escalate
Though much of Majors’ criminal history in Tulsa County has been related to his reported dislike of his Lebanese neighbors, court records show it actually stretches to the West Coast.
When Majors was arrested by Bixby police in 2013 for driving under suspension, police there noted he was considered a California fugitive. He had been charged and convicted there in 2010 with making terroristic threats.
Majors, California Department of Corrections records show, was placed on parole in 2010, but “absconded” at least four times before being released from parole there in December 2014.
However, Majors was arrested in Tulsa twice during that timeframe and was never returned to California, despite records showing he was considered eligible for extradition.
California Department of Corrections spokeswoman Kristina Khokhobashvili said that even though Majors was never returned to that state, he was still able to cycle through their parole system.
“He did not return to California in our custody, but he had satisfied his requirements with us,” she said.
In 2014, Majors married a man named Stephen Schmauss, according to court records. In a protective order filed by the Jabara family, they said Majors was married to an “old man,” who “was very kind to us,” though they alleged Majors was abusive toward him. Majors was never charged with any type of domestic violence toward his husband.
Majors’ alleged history with the Jabara family is extensive.
In 2013, Khalid’s mother, Haifa, filed a protective order against Majors, stating that he would knock on her windows late at night and harass her “with ugly sex words over the phone.” She also alleged that Majors was “very racist towards foreigners and blacks.”
As a result, Majors was ordered to stay at least 300 feet from Haifa Jabara for five years.
A little more than a year later, Majors was granted a protective order against Khalid Jabara, alleging that Jabara had stalked him, broken into his home and damaged his carpets and cabinets. Images attached to the petition show Majors’ home in a state of disrepair, though it’s impossible to determine the cause.
Jabara was ordered to stay 30 feet away from Majors for five years.
While Khalid Jabara apparently abided by the conditions of the protective order filed against him, Majors did not.
In March 2015, Majors was charged with a protective order violation for saying “fuck you” and “I want to kill you” to Haifa Jabara. She also told police Majors had used racial slurs against her during the encounter.
The threat allegedly escalated later that year. Majors was charged in September with assault and battery with a deadly weapon for reportedly striking Haifa Jabara with his car.
Majors, according to an affidavit filed in the case, left the scene before he was eventually apprehended by police. While being questioned, Majors was “extremely unsteady on his feet … and was actively urinating, without the use of his hands, through his open pants.”
Khalid Jabara’s sister, Victoria, told The Frontier Monday that the family would issue a statement about Khalid’s death later, “as soon as we are able to articulate our message.”
In a lengthy post on Facebook, she said Majors had referred to her family as “dirty Arabs,” and said the family had called police the day of her brother’s death to express fear that Majors had access to a handgun.
Tulsa police came to the family’s home and then left, saying there was nothing they could do.
“30 minutes later … the criminal walked up to my brother and shot him on his front porch,” she wrote.
“At the end of the day, my beautiful brother had a heart like no other,” she wrote in her Facebook ode to Khalid. “Sensitive to the core, he loved others so much and wanted to be loved back.
“I’ll miss his jokes (I stole all my jokes from him!), his love for all things electronic, his love for my mom and dad, Rami, and his tenderness towards his nieces. This angel will be missed. Love you, Khalid.”
UPDATE: The Jabara family released an official statement Monday evening on Facebook.
“On Friday night, our world was shattered when our brother, Khalid Jabara, was murdered on the front porch of our family home. The perpetrator was not unknown to us—he is our neighbor—someone whom we continuously brought to law enforcement’s attention. He killed our brother while awaiting trial for running over our mother, resulting in a broken shoulder, collapsed lung, broken ankle, broken nose, head trauma, and fractured ribs amongst other injuries. Only 30 minutes prior to my brother’s shooting, Khalid called the police stating this man had a gun and that he was scared for what might happen. The police came and told him there was nothing to be done. Minutes later, the suspect murdered our brother with four shots.
My family lived in fear of this man and his hatred for years. Yet in May, not even one year after he ran over our mother and despite our repeated protests, he was released from jail with no conditions on his bond—no ankle monitor, no drug/alcohol testing, nothing.
This suspect had a history of bigotry against our family. He repeatedly attacked our ethnicity and perceived religion, making racist comments. He often called us “dirty Arabs,” “filthy Lebanese,” “Aye-rabs,” and “Mooslems”—a fact highlighted by the Tulsa Police Department who also heard these comments from the suspect. The suspect’s bigotry was not isolated to us alone. He made xenophobic comments about many in our community — “filthy Mexican” and the “n” word were all part of his hateful approach to anyone from a different background.
Today, in our pain, we are also keenly aware that this is not just another murder to be added to crime statistics. Our brother’s death could have been prevented. This man was a known danger. He intentionally tried to kill our mother less than one year ago when he ran her over with his car. Based on his racist comments towards us, he should have been charged with a hate crime then. He should not have been released without monitoring. Yet he was released and put back next door to us, the family he assaulted just months before. This is troubling at any time, but profoundly disturbing given the current climate of our country and the increase nationally in cases of hate crimes.
Our brother Khalid was just 37 years old and had his whole life ahead of him. He was a kind spirit, loving brother, uncle and son. Khalid’s heart was big. He cared for our entire family, our friends and people he didn’t even know. He created every Jabara family joke and filled our lives with love and laughter. All of that has been taken away from us by this hateful man and a system that failed to protect our community.”
