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A 14-year-old boy pleaded guilty to robbery in the first degree on Wednesday in the case of Tessa Majors, the 18-year-old Barnard College student who was stabbed to death in a New York City park last December. The teen will be sentenced on June 15.  Prosecutors are offering 18 months of detention, with a 6-month minimum and credit for time served in pretrial detention. The murder charge against the teen, who was 13 at the time of Majors’ death, was dropped. 

During the hearing prosecutor Rachel Glantz explained that her team offered the guilty plea due to the boy’s age and the fact that this was his first experience with the juvenile justice system. After confirming to Judge Carol Goldstein that he wanted to plead guilty, the teen then addressed the court. “We went to the park… one of my friends dropped a knife. I picked up the knife… after that we saw Tessa Majors on the stairs inside Morningside Park,” he said. The teen had previously admitted that he had been present for the attack and had picked up the knife that had been used.  Two other teens were taken into custody in February and are being charged as adults. Their cases are pending. 

Majors, a Virginia native, was stabbed multiple times in New York City’s Morningside Park at approximately 7 p.m. on December 11. She managed to climb up a staircase onto the street, where a security guard found her and called for help. 

        

13-year-old pleads guilty in connection to college student’s murder

Via abcnews.go.com

Tessa Majors was fatally stabbed in Morningside Park in December.

06/03/2020 4:20 PM

 

Three more former Minnesota police officers will be charged in the killing of George Floyd, the 46-year-old Black man who died after an officer kneeled on his neck during an arrest. On Wednesday, the office of Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison charged Tou Thao, Thomas Lane and J. Alexander Kueng with aiding and abetting Floyd’s murder. The Hennepin County prosecutor had already arrested Derek Chauvin, the former police officer seen kneeling on Floyd’s neck, last week, charging him with third-degree murder and manslaughter. Ellison’s office is also planning to announce that it would be upgrading the third-degree murder charge to second-degree murder.

Floyd was killed on May 25 after the officers arrested him for allegedly attempting to make a purchase at a store with a fraudulent $20 bill. As seen in video of Floyd’s arrest, Chauvin used his knee to hold Floyd down by the neck even as Floyd’s pleads, “Please, man, I can’t breathe.” Chauvin kept his knee on Floyd, who was apparently in handcuffs, even after he stopped speaking and moving. He remained there as onlookers shouted at other officers to attend to Floyd. In another video, three other officers can be seen crowding around Floyd, who is on the floor, during the arrest. Floyd was pronounced dead shortly after arriving at a hospital.

Floyd’s death has sparked days of protests and public outcry in Minneapolis and across the country. 

3 more ex-officers charged in Floyd death; murder charge elevated for Chauvin

Via www.nbcnews.com

The three former officers are charged with aiding and abetting murder. The fourth, who placed…

06/03/2020 4:29 PM

 

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