NEW YORK — A teenage boy pleaded guilty on Tuesday to murder and robbery charges in the 2019 stabbing death of Barnard College student Tessa Majors.
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.
Lewis, now 16, downplayed his role in the attack in court on Tuesday, saying he didn’t know Majors “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.