Tessa Majors Murder: Going for the Match in DNA and Other Questions

UPDATE:  Tessa Majors was 18, just starting out at NYC's Barnard College/Columbia University when she was confronted by three individuals  in Morningside Park, just a stone's throw from the college.  One of the three handed a knife to the youth who stabbed her. One of the saddest and most pathetic videos you will ever see is when Tessa, bleeding from the knife wounds, stumbles up a long flight of concrete stairs to seek help.  The courageous young woman makes it to the top, just a few steps from the college, collapses and dies there.  Today,  sixteen-year-old Luchiano Lewis, who confessed to participating in the crime, was given a sentence of nine years to life. He was fourteen at the time the crime was committed. A second youth is already serving a sentence with a third still awaiting trial. 

Everyone knows that the  1989 Central Park 5 murder case has made investigators proceed with an abundance of caution in the similarly  high-profile murder case of victim Tessa Majors. Everyone except the morons who sent racist robocalls to Barnard University personnel knows that white adolescents have committed similar crimes, and for similar reasons. 

But let’s not mix social activism with criminal investigation in the murder of the first year Barnard College student stabbed to death in New York City’s Morningside Park on December 11.  Tessa and her family cry out for justice which just happens to involve a thirteen year old and two fourteen year olds, one of whom (allegedly, to use the appropriate legal terminology of innocent until proven guilty) stabbed and slashed Tessa Majors to death. 

Of course there are people observing and participating in the proceedings who do not want the responsible parties to be found out and, if they are found out, to be subject to the penal codes which, under normal circumstances,   apply equally to everyone, regardless of color, creed,and the rest of all that.  Below, you will see previously published material about the crime as it happened in December of 2019

Defense Attorney Hannah Kaplan would be happy to see her thirteen year old client go scott-free even though he’s admitted being present at the murder scene,   witnessing the fatal attack, and picking up a knife and handing it to one of the other suspects.  While Kaplan and others are doing what defense lawyers always do — play upon suspicions of police misconduct — it’s a good bet that the thirteen year old is on video, as are the two fourteen year olds.  It’s kind of hard to deny you were somewhere else if you’re on video where a murder is committed. 

Of the fourteen year olds, one was interviewed (with his lawyer and guardian) and, owing to the kindness and caution of the police department, released.  The other fourteen year old was believed to have fled south but was in fact found Thursday in the Bronx apartment of a relative.  According to several news sources (NYT for instance), the boy’s relatives were planning to shelter him until a bite wound on his finger healed. 

The notion that Tessa Majors fought back against her attacker(s) by biting comes from the thirteen year old’s confession and description of events. If the news reports have it right, that thirteen year old describes seeing the feather fly out of Tessa Majors’ jacket as she was being repeatedly stabbed and slashed.

But here are a few things I don’t know:

The New York Times and other news outlets often report that two assailants grabbed Tessa from behind, and that one of them reached into her pocket to grab a “plastic bag.”  The “plastic bag” term has appeared in several articles.  Could it just as easily have been “plastic purse” or “plastic wallet?”  Was Tessa carrying around in her pocket an empty Ziplock baggie? No problem there, just wondering.  I always keep a spare plastic bag in my pocket as I’m wandering about. But if it’s true, as one of Tessa’s school friends has it, that Tessa had gone to Morningside Park to buy marijuana, then it should be part of the investigation to determine whether other persons had been near and if somehow, perhaps inadvertently, such persons were involved in activities surrounding the murder.  Such persons, if they do exist, might even provide additional witness information.

I’m puzzled also by the testimony of the thirteen year old first taken into custody.  He says he picked up a knife dropped by one of the two fourteen year olds and handed it to one of the fourteen year olds. This is repeatedly and routinely mentioned in most news stories of the attack.  Can we assume that someone is shown on video picking up the knife and handing it off? But more importantly, how did it happen to be dropped?  Did it drop from a pocket or a hand?  Was it the murder weapon or just a spare knife kept around just for fun?  Where is the knife now?  

So with New York Legal Aid, Hannah Kaplan, and other fantasists attempting to shift focus and blame onto the police department handling of the interviews, investigating authorities are playing it smart by going for the DNA match.

 According to the NYT, forensics has gone over clothing and even the inside of Tessa Majors’ mouth to see what kind of DNA found there would match with DNA from all three of the ‘boys,’ but most especially the one who did the stabbing.  A judge has cleared the warrant for obtaining DNA samples from the most likely of the fourteen year olds to have killed Tessa.

Tessa Majors Murder: Blame the Police is Common Defense Strategy

It’s predictable enough.   When the facts are in your favor, you pound the facts.   When the facts are not in your favor, you pound the police officers involved in the investigation. 

It’s old news right now (as things go today) that the lawyer for the thirteen year old arrested in connection with the murder of Tessa Majors has launched a smear campaign against Wilfredo  Acevedo, a detective who interviewed and obtained the boy’s admission to  having gone to Morningside Park with his friends with the express purpose of robbing someone.  

They passed up on a male victim and then decided on Tessa Majors, a first year student at Barnard.  The thirteen year old admitted to being present at the stabbing-slashing murder, picking up a knife and handing it to teen who struck the fatal blows,  and provided a horrific detailed narrative about how the murder was committed. 

With few options, Defense attorney Hannah Kaplan influenceD news media to write smashing 20-point headlines about  how Acevedo was sued   times in   unconnected cases.  I find it amazing that so many news organizations, absent anything real to report, went with the story and were quite willing to smear the detective.

But Kapan’s wave of routine anti-cop strategy has already splashed harmlessly ashore.  While liberal media enjoyed a short feeding frenzy, I was rather impressed that CNN didn’t jump face forward into that sinkhole and is   reporting the words of New York’s Police Commissioner: 

New York Police Department Commissioner Dermot Shea said Detective Wilfredo Acevedo has never been found to have made a single false statement or falsely arrested anyone and touted his exemplary record of service.

The police union president put it more bluntly, calling out Hanna Kaplan for using a "commonly used strategy employed by defense attorneys" to undermine investigations.  And for the record, Police Commisisoner Shea cites Acevedo’s outstanding record as a police investigator:

"The detective singled out here has made 237 arrests including 93 felony arrests removing dangerous criminals from our streets. He has been recognized with 24 department medals. He has never been found to have made a single false statement or falsely arrested anyone by either the Department, the (Civilian Complaint Review Board), any Civil Court or District Attorney."

  I guess since Acevedo is Hispanic,  defense lawyer Hannah Kaplan was probably frustrated that she couldn’t play the race card along with her other attempts to poison the jury pool.  It was smart for the police, in the early going, not to identify the assailants as persons of color, leaving open the possibility which occurred to me and others — that perhaps the assailants were white thugs.  Remove all phony justifications for murder and what do you have?  Just what it looks like — some   young, very dangerous, very vicious punks who wanted to find easy prey.

So where is this case at right now?  Frankly, it’s only the police who might have the answer, though they have to be a bit frustrated by sixth amendment protections against an accused. 

Here’s the short brief about where things stand:

·       Police have already questioned another teen implicated by the thirteen year old and didn’t have enough evidence to charge him. He was let go as the law requires. The only evidence announced so far is a video that reportedly shows the attack, and the eyewitness account of the thirteen-year-old which is self-serving.  Neither the thirteen-year old nor the released fourteen year old are seen stabbing Tessa Majors.   

·       Another fourteen year old, whose picture is shown above, is being sought as the one who stabbed and slashed Tessa Majors to death.  It is believed that he has left New York and traveled down south to hide among family connections.  Being fourteen, this person does not have a driver’s license and so it’s logical to believe he is being abetted as a fugitive by friends and/or relatives.  

Tessa Majors Murder: Lots of Guessing, Few Results

      The media seems to like this picture of Tessa Majors. Her brightness bespeaks the tragedy. . .

I’d been following the Tessa Majors story since it began. It is a sensational case, I can’t help that — a talented and accomplished young woman in her first year at a prestigious New York City College.  The major NY and other media is all over the story, often with unreliable results.

Some reports said Tessa had gone to the park for a nighttime jog.  Others said she was going for a walk.  An ill-thought out remark by one police union official offended the murder victim’s family when he said Tessa had gone down into the park to buy marijuana.  According to the New York Post, this speculation came from a “college friend of the victim.”

  Tessa’s parents and others were quick to point out Mullin’s comment reflected a blame-the-victim mentality.  True or not, the comment should never have been made. Mullins issued a quick and warranted apology.

 The newest public characterization of this horrible murder is that Tessa fought back, biting one of her assailant’s finger.  This information may or may not have come from the 13 year old who is in custody.  Wouldn’t this also be interpreted by some as a blame-the-victim trope?  Doesn’t it send the message that fighting back against muggers could get you killed?

 The thirteen year old currently in custody appears in a video which his lawyer touts to make the case that the thirteen-year-old (named in the NY Post) did not stab the victim but handed the knife to the teen who did.  Later it emerged that one of the assailants dropped a knife.  The thirteen-year-old picked it up and handed it back to the assailant who repeatedly stabbed Tessa, one blow striking under her armpit and reaching her heart.   

I have many questions.  The biggest one is this:  Why did the ‘boys’ who robbed Tessa Majors have to kill her?  They could have robbed Tessa and vanished into the city as they’d likely done before.  I can't help but wonder if too many public political attacks on color, class and privilege had contributed to the vicious mindsets of the young teen perpetrators.