RIPLEY, Tenn. — Tanuja Lawtrice Rivers, 21, pleaded guilty Friday to the 2013 robbery and murder of a taxi driver in Fayette County.
The taxi driver, Zewdneh Assemu, was found dead near his abandoned taxi after having been reported missing. Rivers told the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation she called Assemu to get a taxi in Oakland, then beat and stabbed him. She also admitted to taking from the victim his cellphone, debit card and cash.
The incident happened Dec. 6, 2013. Assemu was a driver for the Metro/Advantage Taxi Company in Memphis.
In a plea agreement, Rivers was sentenced to 25 years for the second-degree murder conviction, an additional 15 years for the especially aggravated robbery conviction and three years, to be served concurrently, for a false report conviction. In total, she will serve 40 years of prison time with the Tennessee Department of Correction.
