Rashaun Weaver, the third assailant in the fatal stabbing of 18-year-old Tessa Majors, was sentenced on Wednesday to 14 years to life.
Majors was murdered as a result of a failed mugging by three teenagers in Harlem in 2019. Luciano Lewis, Rashaun Weaver, both 14 at the time, and Zyairr Davis, then 13, jumped the Barnard College student in an attempt to get her phone, the New York Post reported about the attack. Majors fought back, refused to hand over her phone, and at one point managed to escape, but was ultimately stabbed to death by Weaver as Lewis held her in a headlock, the outlet reported.
Evidence, later confirmed by surveillance footage, revealed that after the three teenagers fled the scene Majors attempted to make her way back up the park steps up to the main street, but she collapsed and died shortly after, according to the Post.(RELATED: Columbia University Student Stabbed To Death Coming From From Soccer Game)
Davis was the first assailant to plead guilty to one count of first-degree robbery in 2020, and was sentenced to 18 months in a juvenile detention center, reported the NY Post. Additionally, Lewis pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and first-degree robbery, and was sentenced to the maximum of nine years to life in prison, the outlet reported.
“Tess Majors cannot say how being murdered impacted her because she is dead. She is dead forever and is not coming back,” read the victims’ parents statement.
“The family of Tess Majors believes that human life is sacred. The family of Tess Majors believes that murder of a human being, extinguishing another human being should never be normalized or rationalized. The pain is immeasurable and does not go away.”
Tessa Majors’ family impact statement says she fought her attackers for her iPhone because it contained three years worth of songs she’d written that she was hoping to record over winter break, which was a week away.
The family’s full statement: pic.twitter.com/xO11qfyhdN
— Sonia Moghe (@soniamoghe) January 19, 2022
Defense Attorney Jeffrey Lichtman argued that his client was the result of a broken system, noting that Weaver’s father, in addition to other adults in his life, had been imprisoned, ABC 7 reported.
“It does not absolve him but it does explain,” Lichtman said in court.
On the other hand, Manhattan Supreme Court by Assistant District Attorney Matthew Bogdanos argued that Weaver “repeatedly committed crimes”, including a knifepoint robbery in the same park four days before murdering Majors, reported the Post. He shared with the courtroom that the teenager showed no signs of remorse following the attack, going so far as to record himself on his cell phone smoking weed he had stolen from the victim the next night. (RELATED: Video Shows Man Brutally Stabbing Victim In The Face In Broad Daylight)
“Yes 14 years to life is a long time. But at the end of his sentence Rashaun Weaver goes home. Tess never will,” Bogdanos said.
Weaver, the last assailant to be sentenced almost two years later, openly apologized to his family and the court for what he did, noting that if he could go back in time and change what he did he would, ABC 7 reported. He vowed to use his time in prison to “become a better person” and to help kids who come from similar backgrounds. (RELATED: Robber Beats Up, Slash At 64-Year-Old Man In Subway Station, Video Shows)
“I want to be more than a statistic,” he said.