Last Teen In Tessa Majors Killing Sentenced To 14 Years

HARLEM, NY — The teenager who fatally stabbed Barnard College student Tessa Majors in Morningside Park in 2019 was sentenced Wednesday to 14 years to life in prison, drawing to a close a tragedy that shocked the city two years ago.

Rashaun Weaver, who was 14 at the time of the killing, pleaded guilty in December to second-degree murder and first-degree robbery, admitting that he stabbed 18-year-old Majors after she fought off a robbery attempt.

Weaver was one of three teenagers who confronted Majors in the park that night, along with 16-year-old Luciano Lewis and a third boy whose name has not been released because he was charged as a minor. Lewis was sentenced to nine years in prison in October, and the third defendant was sentenced to 18 months in juvenile custody in 2020.

In a victim impact statement read in court before Weaver's sentence was handed down Wednesday, Majors's parents seemed to dispute the premise of the task, saying their daughter "cannot say how being murdered impacted her because she is dead.

"She is dead forever and will not be coming back," the statement reads.

Lewis told a judge last year that Weaver had invited him to come to the park that night along with a third middle-school classmate. The trio had gone to Morningside Park three times beforehand, but only got as far as threatening one man, he said.

Lewis said he was unaware that Majors had been stabbed at all that night, though he noticed feathers flying out of her down jacket.

After an extensive search, police arrested Weaver and charged him the following February.

Majors's death sent shockwaves of grief through the neighborhood, instilling safety fears and stoking concern that the murder would worsen relations between predominantly Black Harlem and whiter, more affluent Morningside Heights.

Memories of the crime were revived in December when Davide Giri, a 30-year-old Columbia University graduate student, was stabbed to death near Morningside Park's northern edge. Police arrested 25-year-old Vincent Pinkney that same night, accusing him of killing Giri and non-fatally stabbing another man.

Meanwhile, last summer, the city secured funding for a new set of security cameras that will be installed in the park. Leaders told Patch that the park had grown safer in recent months after a rise in crime that preceded Majors's death.

Related coverage:

• Boy Pleads Guilty To Murder Of Tessa Majors In Morningside Park
• Cameras Coming To Morningside Park, Over A Year After Murder
• 14-Year-Olds Plead Not Guilty To Murdering Tessa Majors