Robolectric test runs in Android Studio, but not by gradle in the console

Question

I recently updated a few libraries in my gradle file, and as a result, some (but not all) of my unit tests fail when I run them in the console by "./gradlew clean test". However, all my tests pass successfully when I run them inside Android Studio.

Here is a snapshot of my gradle file:

apply plugin: 'com.android.application'
apply plugin: 'android-aspectj'
apply plugin: 'android'
apply plugin: 'idea'
apply plugin: 'org.robolectric'


android {
    compileSdkVersion 21
    buildToolsVersion "21.1.2"

    defaultConfig {
        minSdkVersion 17
        targetSdkVersion 19    
    }

    signingConfigs {
        release {
            ...
        }
    }

    sourceSets {
        main {
            manifest.srcFile 'src/main/AndroidManifest.xml'
            java.srcDirs = ['src/main/java']
            res.srcDirs = ['src/main/res']
            assets.srcDirs = ['src/main/assets']
        }
        test.setRoot("src/test")
    }

    buildTypes {
        release {
            minifyEnabled false
            proguardFiles getDefaultProguardFile('proguard-android.txt'), 'proguard-rules.txt'
            signingConfig signingConfigs.release
        }
        debug {
            ...
        }
    }

    lintOptions {
        abortOnError false
    }

    testOptions {
        unitTests.returnDefaultValues = true
    }

    packagingOptions {
        exclude 'META-INF/DEPENDENCIES.txt'
        exclude 'META-INF/LICENSE.txt'
        exclude 'META-INF/NOTICE.txt'
        exclude 'META-INF/NOTICE'
        exclude 'META-INF/LICENSE'
        exclude 'META-INF/DEPENDENCIES'
        exclude 'META-INF/notice.txt'
        exclude 'META-INF/license.txt'
        exclude 'META-INF/dependencies.txt'
        exclude 'META-INF/LGPL2.1'
    }
}

buildscript {
    repositories {
        mavenCentral()
        mavenLocal()
        jcenter()
        maven {
            url 'https://oss.sonatype.org/content/repositories/snapshots/'
        }
    }

    dependencies {
        classpath 'com.github.dcendents:android-maven-plugin:1.0'
        classpath 'com.uphyca.gradle:gradle-android-aspectj-plugin:0.9.+'
        classpath 'org.robolectric:robolectric-gradle-plugin:1.0.1'
    }
}

dependencies {
    compile 'com.android.support:support-v4:22.1.1'
    compile 'com.android.support:appcompat-v7:22.1.1'
    compile 'com.google.android.gms:play-services:7.3.0'
    compile 'org.apache.httpcomponents:httpcore:4.3'
    compile 'org.apache.httpcomponents:httpmime:4.3.5'
    compile 'org.apache.httpcomponents:httpclient:4.3.5'
    compile 'com.google.code.gson:gson:2.3'
    testCompile 'org.hamcrest:hamcrest-integration:1.3'
    testCompile 'org.hamcrest:hamcrest-core:1.3'
    testCompile 'org.hamcrest:hamcrest-library:1.3'
    testCompile 'com.squareup:fest-android:1.0.+'
    testCompile 'org.mockito:mockito-core:1.+'
    testCompile 'org.jmockit:jmockit:1.8'
    testCompile('junit:junit:4.12') {
        exclude module: 'hamcrest-core'
    }
    testCompile('org.robolectric:robolectric:2.4') {
        exclude module: 'classworlds'
        exclude module: 'commons-logging'
        exclude module: 'httpclient'
        exclude module: 'maven-artifact'
        exclude module: 'maven-artifact-manager'
        exclude module: 'maven-error-diagnostics'
        exclude module: 'maven-model'
        exclude module: 'maven-project'
        exclude module: 'maven-settings'
        exclude module: 'nekohtml'
        exclude module: 'plexus-container-default'
        exclude module: 'plexus-interpolation'
        exclude module: 'plexus-utils'
        exclude module: 'wagon-file'
        exclude module: 'wagon-http-lightweight'
        exclude module: 'wagon-http-shared'
        exclude module: 'wagon-provider-api'
    }
}

idea {
    module {
        testOutputDir = file("build/test-classes")

        testSourceDirs += file('test/')
    }
}

The error I am getting is this:

java.lang.NullPointerException
    at mockit.internal.mockups.MockStates.getMockState(MockStates.java:99)
    at mockit.internal.mockups.MockStates.updateMockState(MockStates.java:92)
    at mockit.internal.state.TestRun.updateMockState(TestRun.java:138)
    at org.junit.runners.model.FrameworkMethod.validatePublicVoidNoArg(FrameworkMethod.java)
    at org.junit.runners.ParentRunner.validatePublicVoidNoArgMethods(ParentRunner.java:155)
    at org.junit.runners.BlockJUnit4ClassRunner.validateTestMethods(BlockJUnit4ClassRunner.java:208)
    at org.junit.runners.BlockJUnit4ClassRunner.validateInstanceMethods(BlockJUnit4ClassRunner.java:188)
    at org.junit.runners.BlockJUnit4ClassRunner.collectInitializationErrors(BlockJUnit4ClassRunner.java:128)
    at org.junit.runners.ParentRunner.validate(ParentRunner.java:416)

My custom RobolectricGradleTestRunner is:

public class RobolectricGradleTestRunner extends RobolectricTestRunner {
    private static final int MAX_SDK_SUPPORTED_BY_ROBOLECTRIC = 18;

    public RobolectricGradleTestRunner(Class<?> testClass) throws InitializationError {
        super(testClass);
    }

    @Override
    protected AndroidManifest getAppManifest(Config config) {
        String dir = System.getProperty("user.dir");
        String manifestProperty = dir + "/build/intermediates/manifests/full/debug/AndroidManifest.xml";
        String resProperty = dir + "/build/intermediates/res/debug";
        return new AndroidManifest(Fs.fileFromPath(manifestProperty), Fs.fileFromPath(resProperty)) {
            @Override
            public int getTargetSdkVersion() {
                return MAX_SDK_SUPPORTED_BY_ROBOLECTRIC;
            }
        };
    }
}

And this is one of my tests that is failing:

@RunWith(RobolectricGradleTestRunner.class)
public class AboutActivityTest {
    private AboutActivity activity;

    @Before
    public void initialize() {
        activity = Robolectric.buildActivity(AboutActivity.class).create().start().get();
    }


    @Test
    public void testAboutPage() {
        assertNotNull("AboutActivity is null", activity);
        Fragment fragment = activity.getFragmentManager().findFragmentByTag(AboutFragment.FRAGMENT_TAG);
        assertNotNull("fragment is null", fragment);
        Button button = (Button) fragment.getView().findViewById(R.id.buttonTour);
        assertNotNull("Tour button is null", button);
        ShadowActivity shadowHome = Robolectric.shadowOf(activity);
        button.performClick();
        assertThat(shadowHome.peekNextStartedActivityForResult().intent.getComponent(), equalTo(new ComponentName(activity, TourActivity.class)));
    }
}

Based on what I see, it seems jmockit is having some problem to initialize. But I am not sure what it is. Any help is greatly appreciated.