Elinor Aspegren, USA TODAY
Published 9:38 p.m. ET June 15, 2020
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A 13-year-old boy has been arrested and charged in the stabbing death of a Barnard College freshman student in New York.
Wochit
A 14-year-old boy was sentenced Monday to the maximum of 18 months in juvenile detention for the 2019 robbery and murder of Barnard College student Tessa Majors, a killing that sparked outrage across New York City.
The teen, who pleaded guilty on June 3, was 13 at the time of the attack and charged as a juvenile. He was described by his attorneys as having a “limited role” in the killing. Authorities have said previously that he was not the suspect who stabbed Majors.
The two 14-year-old boys charged as adults in Majors’ murder, Rashaun Weaver and Luchiano Lewis, are in custody and awaiting trial.
The teen sentenced on Monday will serve a minimum of six months in a secure juvenile facility, New York City’s Office of the Corporation Counsel said in a statement to NBC News. The city’s children’s services department can then release and monitor him, the office said.
The stabbing death of Majors, 18, last December in Morningside Park prompted Mayor Bill de Blasio to increase patrols near Barnard, an independent women’s college affiliated with Columbia University.
“Ms. Majors was a bright, promising, and talented young woman who had just begun to explore life as a college student in New York City when she was tragically and senselessly murdered. While we have brought this portion of this horrific case to a close, we know that the pain of this loss will endure,” Corporation Counsel James E. Johnson said in a statement, according to the New York Daily News.
The teen previously described the attack in court as a crime of opportunity. The youths saw Majors walking up some steps and approached her.
“Rashaun went up to her and said something to her and Tessa yelled for help,” he said, according to the New York Times. “Rashaun used the knife that I had handed to him to stab Tessa and I saw feathers coming out of her coat.”
Contributing: The Associated Press
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