A 14-year-old boy kept Barnard College freshman Tessa Majors from escaping a fatal mugging in an Upper Manhattan park last year, a prosecutor said in court Wednesday.
Luchiano Lewis grabbed Majors, 18, and put her “in some kind of a bear hug or headlock” when she tried to flee up a set of stairs in Morningside Park, Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Matthew Bogdanos said.
“Ms. Majors is ultimately able to extricate herself from that top landing,” Bogdanos said in Manhattan Supreme Court.
“Unfortunately, she was already stabbed four times.”
Bogdanos also noted the unrelenting viciousness of the attack on Majors, who authorities have said screamed for help and valiantly fought back against her assailants.
“This wasn’t 10 seconds. This was more than a minute,” Bogdanos said.
“That’s extraordinary for a robbery and a murder to take that long.”
Majors’ dad, novelist and English professor Inman Majors, hung his head in grief as the grisly details were revealed.
Lewis was brought into court in handcuffs by an NYPD detective following his surrender to cops earlier in the day.
He was the third and final suspect busted in Majors’ Dec. 11 slaying.
An indictment unsealed Wednesday charges Lewis and another 14-year-old, Rashuan Weaver, with murder and robbery as adults.
Weaver, who was arrested Friday, is accused of repeatedly knifing Majors in the torso, including once through her heart.
A criminal complaint filed Saturday says an unspecified audio recording caught Weaver confessing that he tried to steal Majors cellphone and stabbed her because “she was hanging onto her phone.”
The complaint also alleges that DNA matching Weaver’s profile was found on one of Major’s fingernails and that “identifiable sneakers and clothing” captured on surveillance video tie all three defendants to her murder.
Weaver, who’s being held without bail, was brought to court Wednesday for arraignment with Lewis, with both saying, “Not guilty,” when asked to enter pleas.
If convicted as charged, they would each face a maximum nine years to life in prison.
The third teen charged in the case — 13-year-old Zyairr Davis — was arrested a day after Majors’ slaying, but his case is being handled in Family Court due to his age.
Although Davis allegedly confessed and implicated both Weaver and Lewis, they both refused to answer questions and instead demanded lawyers when they were picked up by cops, sources have said.
Bogdanos said that the grand jury that indicted the older boys heard testimony from four dozen witnesses and reviewed hundreds of pages of evidence, and that the minutes from the closed-door proceedings were more than 1,100 pages long.
“This was no rush to judgment. Rather, this was a careful, methodical, comprehensive and thorough investigation over the course of two months,” Bogandos said.
Relatives and friends of both defendants helped pack the courtroom, with Weaver’s mom, Katima Minton, letting out a gasp when his potential punishment was announced.
Neither the many supporters nor Tessa’s dad, who’s on leave from James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia, would comment outside court.
Lewis’ defense lawyer, Alex Padilla, sought to have the teen set free on supervised release, suggesting that the evidence against him wasn’t as strong as the prosecution claimed.
“It strikes me as off that they waited until today to arrest my client. If the video is so clear, why wait?” Padilla said.
“I doubt the quality of that video.”
But Justice Gayle Roberts sided with Bogdanos, who argued that Lewis posed a risk of running away if cut loose.
Majors’ dad, Inman Majors, a novelist and English professor at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia, attended the hearing but declined to comment afterward.