Teen takes rob plea in Tessa slay
A 13-year-old boy jailed in connection to the brutal stabbing death of Barnard College student Tessa Majors pleaded guilty to robbery Wednesday.
At a hearing held in Manhattan Family Court, the boy, now 14, admitted to participating in the robbery that led to Majors’ death and picking the murder weapon up off the ground shortly before it was used to kill her.
“Rashaun [Weaver] went over and said something to Tessa Majors on the stairs,” he said of one of the two other teens arrested. “She started yelling for help. Rashaun used the knife I had handed to him to stab Tessa Majors.”
He said the trio followed Majors (inset) “up the stairs to the platform” to rob her. When she fought back and refused to hand over her property, she was stabbed, according to authorities.
The boy, whom the Daily News is not naming because of his age, appeared nervous — pulling at his hair and scratching his arms as he entered his plea virtually from a juvenile facility. He was due to go to trial for the killing in March, but it was adjourned on account of the coronavirus pandemic.
Majors, of Charlottesville, Va., was jogging down a set of steps in Morningside Park shortly before 7 p.m. on Dec. 11, 2019, when she was confronted by the teens.
Prosecutors for the city Law Department, which is handling the case because the boy is a minor, asked Manhattan Family Court Judge Carol Goldstein to impose a minimum sentence of six months in a limited-security facility and a maximum of 18 months.
He will likely be sentenced to time served at his June 15 disposition because he’s already been in custody for six months.
The two 14-year-olds arrested for Majors’ killing, Weaver and Luciano Lewis, were charged as adults with second-degree murder in February. Weaver’s DNA was discovered beneath Majors’ fingernails, authorities said.