NEW YORK — A teen who authorities accused of wielding the knife and fatally stabbing a New York City college student in December 2019 pleaded guilty Thursday to murder and robbery, the third and final suspect in the killing of Tessa Majors.
Rashaun Weaver, now 16, faces 14 years to life in prison when he is sentenced next month. In state Supreme Court in Manhattan, he admitted stabbing Majors, an 18-year-old first-year student at Barnard College, in Manhattan’s Morningside Park.
An email seeking comment was sent to his attorney, Jeffrey Lichtman. In court, Lichtman described his client as “deeply remorseful.”
Weaver and another teen were charged as adults in the killing; a 13-year-old was tried as a juvenile.
Authorities said Majors was stabbed during an attempted robbery while going through the park near campus in the early evening. She collapsed on the street after staggering up a flight of stairs.
In September, Luchiano Lewis, the other teen charged as an adult, pleaded guilty to murder and robbery, but pinned the actual stabbing on Weaver. He was sentenced in October to nine years to life in prison.
The 13-year-old was sentenced in 2020 to 18 months in a juvenile detention center.
Majors was from Charlottesville, Virginia, and was planning to study journalism. Her death drew national attention and condemnation from city leaders.
