Fox News Flash top headlines for December 16
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FIRST ON FOX: The teen who stabbed New York City college student Tessa Majors to death in 2019 during a shocking botched robbery pleaded guilty to murder Thursday in Manhattan Supreme Court.
Rashaun Weaver and Luchiano Lewis, then both 14, and another middle school pal Zyairr Davis, then 13, went to Morningside Park the night of Dec. 11 to rob people, court papers allege.
Barnard college freshman Tessa Majors was stabbed to death during a botched mugging in 2019.
They zeroed in on the 18-year-old Barnard freshman who had just moved to the Big Apple from Virginia.
Weaver was the first to pounce on the young woman. After she passed the trio in the dimly-lit park while staring down at her iPhone, Weaver ran up behind her and kicked her hard in the back, court papers allege.
A scuffle ensued and Majors fought back, biting and clawing at Weaver as she yelled for help.
A split of Tessa Majors and Luchiano Lewis. Lewis, who is now 16, was sentenced nine years to life in prison for his role in the fatal stabbing of Majors. (Fox news | Pool photo)
Lewis held her in a headlock, while Weaver repeatedly plunged a knife into her chest, piercing her heart and sending the feathers of her down coat flying into the air.
The boys fled with her iPhone, as she crumpled to the ground and died.
"The murder of Tessa Majors tore at the fabric of this entire city," Justice Robert Mandelbaum said at a prior court hearing in the case.
TESSA MAJORS SUSPECT PLEADS GUILTY IN KILLING OF BARNARD COLLEGE STUDENT
Weaver is charged in three separate cases and copped to the top count in each. He pleaded guilty to second-degree murder for Majors' killing.
Weaver copped to one count of first-degree robbery for a crime committed four days before the stabbing death of Majors. He and Lewis allegedly robbed a stranger, at knifepoint, of his iPhone XR in Morningside Park.
Make-shift memorial for Tessa Majors inside the Barnard campus, Thursday, Dec. 12, 2019, in New York. Majors, a 18-year-old Barnard College freshman from Virginia, was fatally stabbed in a park near the school's campus in New York City. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)
Weaver wasn’t arrested for Majors’ murder until the evening of Feb. 14 — two months after the slaying.
Hours before he was slapped in cuffs, he and four other suspects robbed a man in East Harlem, brutally pummeling his face and head before stealing his cellphone, $130 and his shoes, the complaint alleges. Weaver pleaded guilty to second-degree robbery for the beat down.
TESSA MAJORS CASE: TEENAGER, 14, ARRESTED IN THE MURDER OF BARNARD COLLEGE STUDENT, NYPD ANNOUNCES
In exchange for his guilty pleas, Weaver was promised a sentence of 14 years to life – significantly less than the maximum of 21 years to life.
Columbia University campus
Weaver is the final defendant to face justice in Majors’ killing – a startling crime that transfixed the nation and drew national news headlines for weeks.
Lewis was sentenced to nine years to life in prison last month, the maximum under the law, after pleading guilty to second-degree murder and first-degree robbery.
BARNARD STUDENT'S SUSPECTED KILLER, 13, DENIED RELEASE
Davis, who was charged as a juvenile delinquent, copped to one count of first-degree robbery in 2020 and was sentenced to 18 months in detention.
"The hopes and dreams for our daughter Tess came to a tragic end," wrote Inman and Christy Majors in a statement read out loud at Lewis’ sentencing by Assistant District Attorney Matthew Bogdanos.
"Nearly two years later, we still find words inadequate to describe the immeasurable pain, trauma, and suffering that our family has endured since her senseless murder," they wrote.
The slain young woman was a voracious reader, a fledgling journalist and an accomplished musician.
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"She had big dreams," the statement said. "And she was brave. Her family misses her every moment of every day." The victim's shattered father was in the courtroom for Weaver's guilty plea.
Weaver's high-powered defense lawyer Jeffrey Lichtman, who took the case pro bono, called the murder tragic for both families.
"Rashaun hopes he can salvage his life and become a productive member of society," the attorney said. "The public has to realize this was a 14-year-old boy at the time raised in the most horrific circumstances."
Weaver’s guilty plea in Majors’ slaying comes weeks after a purported gang member, Vincent Pinkney, fatally stabbed Columbia graduate student Davide Giri in the stomach inside Morningside Park — one block from the Ivy League university’s campus.
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