Tessa Majors’ killer Rashaun Weaver sentenced to 14 years to life after stabbing student to death in ‘botched robbery’
TESSA Majors’ killer has been sentenced to 14 years to life after the student was stabbed to death in a botched robbery.
Rashaun Weaver, 16, pleaded guilty in December to murder and robbery charges.
Weaver previously confessed to the murder of 18-year-old Majors while in conversation with his father, Clifford Weaver.
The elder Weaver was speaking on a recorded prison phone line at the Mohawk Correctional Facility, where he was being held on a parole violation, according to reports.
It also emerged that the younger Weaver has been indicted in another robbery.
Tessa Majors was attacked several blocks from Barnard College, in Morningside Park, Manhattan, on December 11, 2019.
Prosecutors alleged that Weaver and co-defendant Luchiano Lewis, who were 14 at the time, and Zyairr Davis, then 13, tried to mug Majors.
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After Majors shouted for help, Weaver is alleged to have repeatedly stabbed Majors in the torso, while Lewis held her in a headlock.
Describing the conversation between Weaver and his father, court papers said: “The defendant stated in substance that he was in the park and tried to take the girl’s phone and ‘she was hanging onto her phone’ and that he hit her with a knife.”
ATTEMPTED MUGGING
Weaver and his friend, Keith Bond, 14, were also indicted for a Valentine’s Day robbery, which took place hours before Weaver was arrested for the murder of Majors.
According to a complaint, Weaver, Bond, and two others allegedly beat and robbed a man in East Harlem at around 5:30pm.
The man, who was unnamed, is reported to have shown up outside a Harlem property to purchase a cellphone, but instead, he was ambushed.
Weaver and Bond, joined by two other unnamed suspects, allegedly chased after the man and pummeled him in the head and face before stealing his cellphone, his shoes, and $130, the complaint states.
According to court papers, the victim suffered two black eyes, as well as bruises to his cheeks and nose.
In the Majors case, Weaver and Lewis are being tried as adults.
Zyairr Davis, in a videotaped confession, told authorities that the three teenagers had headed to the park with the intention of robbing someone.
Davis was sentenced to 18 months in juvenile detention for his role in Majors’ killing.
According to papers, Weaver and Lewis also face charges for the alleged knife-point robbery of a stranger’s cellphone in Morningside Park just four days before Majors was killed.
Clifford Weaver managed to persuade Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman’s high-powered attorney, Jeffrey Lichtman, to take on his son’s case pro bono.
Lichtman said: “I don’t discuss the evidence at this point of the case, but regardless, it doesn’t change the fact he was a 14-year-old boy charged with crimes that the state is now looking to put him in jail potentially for life.”