Tessa Majors killing: Teen charged as juvenile sentenced to 18 months

Tessa Majors, 18, was stabbed to death on Dec. 11 near Columbia University.

A teenager who pleaded guilty to robbery in the fatal stabbing of Barnard College student Tessa Majors was sentenced on Monday to spend 18 months in a limited secure facility.

The teenager, now 14, was charged as a juvenile, as he was 13 at the time of the murder in December 2019. In June he pleaded guilty to first-degree robbery.

ABC’s Aaron Katersky reports for ABC News Radio:

He will serve a minimum of six months in an Administration for Children’s Services (ACS) facility, after which ACS officials could make the decision to release him and monitor his progress, according to the New York City Law Department.

His placement can be continued until he turns 18, the law department said. He will get credit for the time served since his arrest.

Majors, 18, was stabbed to death on Dec. 11 in upper Manhattan’s Morningside Park, just off the campus of Columbia University, as three teenagers tried to rob her.

Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance said Majors’ last words were, “Help me! I’m being robbed.”

The other two teenage boys arrested, Rashaun Weaver and Luchiano Lewis, were both 14 at the time and were charged as adults.

Weaver is accused of fatally stabbing Majors as Lewis allegedly held her in a headlock.

A victim impact statement from Majors’ parent was read in court on Monday.

“There are no words adequate to describe the pain and suffering that the family of Tess Majors has endured since her death by murder,” the statement said in part. “On Labor Day weekend 2019, the parents of Tess Majors dropped her off at Barnard College in New York City to begin her freshman year of college. One hundred days later, they brought her home to Virginia in an urn.”

The statement claimed that “the respondent has shown a complete lack of remorse or contrition for his role in the murder of Tess Majors. By his own admission, the respondent picked up a knife that had fallen to the ground and handed it to an individual who then used it to stab Tess Majors to death. The family can’t help but wonder what would have happened if that knife had been left on the ground.”

Weaver’s and Lewis’ trials on murder and robbery charges are pending. Both have pleaded not guilty.

Lewis’ attorney declined to comment to ABC News on Monday. Weaver’s attorney could not immediately be reached for comment.

ABC News’ Courtney Condron contributed to this report.