MANHATTAN — A judge sentenced a teenage boy in the 2019 stabbing death of Barnard College student Tessa Majors to nine years to life in prison on Thursday.
Luchiano Lewis, who was 14 at the time, was accused of holding Majors in a headlock and preventing her from escaping while another 14-year-old knifed her in Manhattan’s Morningside Park in December 2019. He pleaded guilty in September to murder and robbery, but downplayed his role in the attack.
Majors’ family members said they’ve suffered immeasurable pain and trauma since her death.
“With every legal proceeding, we are forced to re-live the events of December 11, 2019,” they said in a victim impact statement read in court. “We have not been able to grieve our daughter properly or in peace. Nearly two years after her murder, we still have very little closure.”
After Majors’ death, Lewis said he didn’t know the college student “had been stabbed, let alone killed” until the next day, when he heard someone was killed in the park and read a news story about it.
After Majors was stabbed, she stumbled up a flight of stairs to street level seeking help and collapsed near a campus security booth.
The suspected stabber, Rashaun Weaver, was charged with two counts of murder in the second degree, including one count as intentional murder and one count as felony murder.
A third suspect, who was 13 at the time, was previously sentenced to 18 months after he pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of first-degree robbery.
Following Majors’ death, the community called for more safety measures to be taken in the area.
