Third NYC teen sentenced in 2019 murder of Tess Majors

The last of three teens convicted in the murder of former Waynesboro resident Tess Majors was sentenced in New York on Wednesday.

Rashaun Weaver was sentenced to 14 years to life in prison in the December 2019 murder of Majors, a St. Anne’s-Belfield School graduate, and former Augusta Free Press journalism intern.

Weaver pleaded guilty in December to murder in the second degree, telling the court he “intentionally caused the death of Tessa Majors by stabbing her with a knife.”

The teen, who was 14 at the time of the murder, spoke at his sentencing hearing, apologizing to Major’s family.

“I never set out to harm her, and I would give anything to go back in time so that it never happened,” Weaver said. “Nothing I say or do for the rest of my life will make up for the harm and pain I caused.”

Majors was 18 and a freshman at Barnard College when she was stabbed to death at Morningside Park in New York City.

Prosecutors said her killers targeted her because of her iPhone. Her family said they believe Majors resisted because the phone contained music that she’d written that was not stored anywhere else.

“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,” Assistant District Attorney Matthew Bogdanos said, reading from a victim-impact statement from Majors’ parents, Inman and Christy Majors.

“They have no idea what it is like to fight for an iPhone for the simple matter that it contained three years’ worth of songs she’d written; songs she was planning to record over the winter break, which was only a week away,” the family’s statement said. “They have no idea what it is like to stumble up a long flight of stairs after being stabbed multiple times in the chest, her phone still in her hand.”

Luchiano Lewis, who was 14 at the time of the murder, was charged as an adult, and pleaded guilty to murder and robbery charges, and was sentenced in October to nine years to life in prison.

A third teen, unnamed, pleaded guilty to first-degree robbery in 2020 and was sentenced to 18 months in the custody of the Administration for Children’s Services.

Story by Chris Graham