Teen Who Stabbed Barnard Student To Death in 2019 Gets 14 Years For Her Murder

The third of three teens who participated in the fatal stabbing of Barnard College freshman Tessa Majors in New York City has been sentenced to 14 years for his role in the killing.

Rashaun Weaver, 16, was sentenced to 14 years to life on Wednesday for the brutal attack on Majors, 18, in Upper Manhattan’s Morningside Park in December of 2019, local outlet WABC reports. Weaver was 14 when he and two other teens tried to rob the student.

He stabbed her in the heart during the attempted robbery, after which she staggered out of the park and into the street and collapsed in a crosswalk.

Inman and Christy Majors wrote in a victim statement, which was read aloud by a prosecutor in court on Wednesday that “the family of Tess Majors misses her every second of every day and will continue to do so as long as they are living and sentient.”

“Their pain is immeasurable and does not go away,” it states, according to the New York Post.

Weaver apologized to Majors’ parents, who were present in the courtroom, for his "selfish" and "immature" actions, according to WABC. He said he’d "give anything to go back in time so it never happened.”

Weaver pleaded guilty in December to second-degree murder, as well as both first-degree and second-degree robbery, PIX 11 reported. He was charged as an adult.

Weaver was the first one arrested in connection with Majors' death and prosecutors say he was the one who used the knife on the college freshman, NBC New York reported in December. He had initially pleaded not guilty to the crime.

Weaver is the last one of the trio to be sentenced. Luchiano Lewis, 16, was sentenced to nine years to life in October after he was charged as an adult and pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and first-degree robbery. Lewis also admitted to robbing other victims with Weaver in Morningside Park before Majors’ attack.

The third teen, who was 13 at the time of Majors’ stabbing, has not been named because he was charged as a juvenile. He pleaded guilty in June of 2020 and was sentenced to 18 months in a juvenile detention facility.

Majors’ parents also said in their statement that they have “no idea what it is to fight with three males — all of them larger than she — for over a minute, escaping two times only to be surrounded and targeted again,” according to the New York Post.

Prosecutors said that the three teens had surrounded the college student before she fought back, biting Weaver in the finger — which apparently provoked the teen.

Jeffrey Lichtman, who represents Weaver, claimed that his client was "symptom" of a broken system of repeated incarceration.

"It does not absolve him but it does explain," Lichtman said, ABC News reports.