NEW YORK — Tessa Majors lost her life in a highly publicized murder nearly two years ago. A Manhattan judge threw the book at one of her killers, sentencing him to the maximum punishment of nine years to life in prison.
“On December 11, 2019, the hopes and dreams for our daughter Tess came to a tragic end,” said a statement from Inman and Christy Majors and read out loud in Manhattan Supreme Court by Assistant District Attorney Matthew Bogdanos, New York Post reported.
“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,” read Bogdanos as Inman Majors wept in the gallery. His wife was not present. “Tess was a brilliant student, a voracious reader, a poet and a fledgling journalist. She had big dreams.”
“Mostly she loved her family and friends, her cats, and especially her younger brother,” the statement read. “They were best friends.”
However, her hopes and dreams ended when the college freshman was preyed upon by Luchiano Lewis, now 16, and his friends.
Lewis and two buddies from middle school — Rashaun Weaver, then 14, and Zyairr Davis, then 13 — stabbed Majors, 18, to death during the botched robbery in Morningside Park.
Inman Majors, an English professor at James Madison University, and his wife described the pain that their family continue to endure over the loss of their daughter, who had just moved to the Big Apple from Virginia when she was slain.
“Our hearts ache as we watch Tess’ friends return to school, perform concerts, start new jobs, and experience all the things that our daughter never will,” they wrote. “It is hard for many old friends to be around us. Our grief is too profound. We are too changed from the people we used to be. Tess was a friend to the friendless and kind in all the little ways that people remember forever,” they wrote. “And she was brave. Her family misses her every moment of every day.”
“With every legal proceeding, we are forced to re-live the events,” the letter states. “We have not been able to grieve our daughter properly or in peace. Nearly two years after her murder, we still have very little closure.”
During the violent attack, Lewis reportedly placed the college freshman in a headlock while Weaver repeatedly stabbed her, piercing her heart. The teens fled with her iPhone.
Lewis pleaded guilty last month to second-degree murder and first-degree robbery, the Post reported.
“The murder of Tessa Majors tore at the fabric of this entire city,” said Justice Robert Mandelbaum.
Weaver is awaiting trial.
