A 14-year-old who pleaded guilty to robbing Tessa Majors, the first-year Barnard student who was fatally stabbed last December in Morningside Park, was sentenced in Manhattan Family Court on Monday to 18 months in a juvenile facility.
Under the sentencing by Judge Carol Goldstein, the teenager will serve a minimum of six months in a limited secure facility. After that the city's Administration for Children's Services can decide to release him and monitor his progress in the community. His placement may be extended until his 18th birthday.
Earlier this month, Judge Goldstein accepted a plea deal with prosecutors, allowing a murder charge to be dropped. Instead, the youth, who was 13 at the time of the incident, pleaded guilty to robbery in the first degree.
Speaking through a video conference at the time, the New York Times reported that the teen described to the judge how he and two friends had gone to the park with the intention of robbing people and that they targeted Majors while she walked up a staircase near West 116th Street. He said that prior to the stabbing, he had picked up a knife dropped by one of his friends, Rashaun Weaver, which he then handed back to him.
“Rashaun went up to her and said something to her and Tessa yelled for help,” he said, according to the Times. “Rashaun used the knife that I had handed to him to stab Tessa and I saw feathers coming out of her coat. Then I saw Rashaun take a plastic bag out of her pocket.”
Weaver along with the other friend, Luchiano Lewis, were 14 when Ms. Majors was killed. The two have been charged as adults with second-degree murder and robbery.
“Ms. Majors was a bright, promising, and talented young woman who had just begun to explore life as a college student in New York City when she was tragically and senselessly murdered. While we have brought this portion of this horrific case to a close, we know that the pain of this loss will endure," Corporation Counsel James Johnson said in a statement.
The Legal Aid Society, which defended the teen, had argued that he should never have been charged with murder. Hannah Kaplan, a Legal Aid lawyer, had also accused an NYPD detective of badgering and yelling at him during his interrogation.
In response to the sentencing, Legal Aid said the plea to robbery in the first degree was consistent with the teen's "limited role in this tragic event" and noted that he did not touch Ms. Majors or take any of her property, nor was there any DNA evidence linking him to the stabbing.
"Tessa Majors's death was tragic. It caused incalculable pain to her loved ones and affected our entire city," Legal Aid said in a statement. "He will face its repercussions for a long time, likely the rest of his life. This plea clears a path for him and his family to move forward with their lives."
