Teen Rashaun Weaver pleads guilty to fatally stabbing Barnard student Tessa Majors
NEW YORK (WABC) -- Rashaun Weaver pleaded guilty Thursday to fatally stabbing Tessa Majors, the Barnard College freshman killed two years ago in Morningside Park, completing the prosecution of a case that rattled the city and ended the hopes and dreams Majors' shattered parents said they had for their daughter.
Judge Robert Mandelbaum agreed to a 14 years-to-life sentence for the third and final assailant now convicted in the case.
Weaver said "yes" when asked how he pleaded to the murder and two earlier robberies.
"He was 14 when he committed these crimes," prosecutor Matthew Bogdanos said. "If he pleads guilty, he will save the Majors family the trauma of a trial and that counts for something."
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The Manhattan District Attorney's Office established a suspected motive.
"The (expletive) bit me," Bogdanos quoted Weaver saying at the time he stabbed Majors. "That's why he did it. She fought back."
Weaver sat passively in court in a green shirt and light blue mask. His hands were cuffed, with two court officers standing behind him.
"Rashaun Weaver is deeply remorseful," defense attorney Jeffrey Lichtman said. "I saw something in him. There is some decency in him."
Three teens took part in the botched robbery that ended in murder.
Luchiano Lewis previously pleaded guilty and was sentenced to nine years. A juvenile also pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 18 months detention.
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The juvenile supplied the knife Weaver used to stab Majors. It had been stolen from a Marshalls, Bogdanos said.
When Lewis pleaded guilty in October, prosecutors showed video of Majors' last moments as she climbed the steps from the park to the street.
She is seen stumbling toward a lamppost and collapsing on the ground, where she died.
As he has for each seminal moment in the case, Majors' father Inman Majors was present in the courtroom.
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