DES MOINES, Iowa — In what a decide described Tuesday as a “second probability,” an Iowa teen who pleaded responsible within the deadly stabbing of her alleged rapist is not going to go to jail, and will escape having a felony document.
Pieper Lewis, 17, acquired 5 years of probation and a deferred judgment,which implies her document could possibly be expunged earlier than completion of the sentence.
Polk County District Decide David M. Porter ordered her to additionally serve 1,200 hours of group service, which is able to cowl greater than $4,000 in fines.
She was ordered to keep on the Recent Begin Ladies’s Heart whereas she is on probation, will probably be topic to GPS monitoring, and should present $150,000 in compensation for the loss of life Zachary Brooks.
“Properly, Ms. Lewis, this was the second probability you requested for. You don’t get a 3rd. Do you perceive that?” the decide requested Lewis.
Earlier than her sentencing, Lewis gave a press release, saying she, too, was a sufferer.
“I want that by no means occurred,” Lewis, who was 15 and homeless on the time, mentioned of the June 1, 2020 killing. “However to say there’s just one sufferer within the story is absurd.”
Lewis pleaded responsible to voluntary manslaughter and willful harm in June 2021. Held on the Polk County Juvenile Detention Heart since her arrest the day after the killing, she might have acquired as much as 10 years on every rely.
Prosecutors advisable probation, and Lewis’ attorneys requested for the deferred judgment.
Brooks, 37, of Des Moines, allegedly raped Lewis 5 instances within the weeks earlier than she killed him. Lewis mentioned in her plea settlement she stabbed him 30 instances with a knife she discovered on his nightstand the morning after he raped her but once more.
Her attorneys argued that Lewis was a intercourse trafficking sufferer manipulated by a 28-year-old man she lived with on the time. Prosecutors by no means disputed the declare Lewis had been sexually assaulted or that she was a sufferer of intercourse trafficking.
The Des Moines Register, a part of the USA TODAY Community, isn’t naming the person who allegedly trafficked Lewis as a result of he has not been charged with a criminal offense.
‘VERY LITTLE REGULATION’:San Francisco DA’s rape-kit DNA declare attracts shock throughout nation
Lewis: ‘My story can change issues’
Lewis mentioned throughout her sentencing listening to that she by no means meant to kill somebody, however that she felt unsafe within the aftermath of the alleged rape.
She mentioned she did not worry the prospect of going to jail, and that she hopes to go on to be a designer and open a enterprise. She additionally mentioned she is going to turn out to be a juvenile justice advocate.
“My story can change issues. My story has modified me,” Lewis mentioned. “The occasions that passed off on that horrific day can’t be modified, as a lot as I want I might. That day a mix of sophisticated actions passed off ensuing within the loss of life of an individual, in addition to a stolen innocence of a kid.”
“You may have a narrative to inform,” Porter informed her. “In the event you’re prepared to inform that story in entrance of me and the members right here on this courtroom, you need to be prepared and have the ability to inform that story to different younger and weak girls in our group.”
Lewis initially was charged with first-degree homicide. Requested in August if different expenses could possibly be filed, Polk County Legal professional John Sarcone mentioned solely that “regulation enforcement continues to actively examine all facets of this matter.”
Iowa regulation requires individuals convicted of homicides to pay $150,000 in compensation, however Lewis’ legal professional Matthew Sheeley argued that Brooks’ rape of Lewis made him greater than 51% answerable for his personal loss of life. The decide rejected this argument and ordered Lewis to pay $150,000 to Brooks’ property.
“The world has been laborious to Pieper,” Magdalena Reese, one other of Lewis’ attorneys, mentioned. “As an alternative of being laborious, she made the aware option to be comfortable and to make her story make a distinction in her life and the lives of others. As an alternative of turning silent and being hateful, she turned it round.”
‘LOOKING THE OTHER WAY’:Why did not SDSU do extra amid rape allegations towards Matt Araiza, others?
Lewis informed the Des Moines Register she skilled a “mentally and emotionally abusive” dwelling life after being adopted out of foster care at age 3 and after her dad and mom divorced.
She was sexually assaulted on the Youth Emergency Companies & Shelter facility in Des Moines after operating away from dwelling, in accordance with her plea settlement.
After a sequence of unstable housing preparations, Lewis slept within the hallways of an condo advanced the place an acquaintance lived. There, she met the 28-year-old man who allegedly trafficked her.
Who was Zachary Brooks and the way did he die?
Brooks, the person Lewis killed, was a father of three kids, and labored t a transit firm in Fort Dodge, Iowa. Six weeks earlier than his loss of life, he moved again to Des Moines.
Brooks’ brother, Deondre Calaway, described Brooks as a loving father and proud canine proprietor. Calaway informed the Register he noticed Lewis at Brooks’ condo as soon as; Brooks informed him she was over 18, he mentioned.
Lewis met Brooks at a celebration, she informed Des Moines police detectives. The man who allegedly trafficked Lewis first despatched her to stick with Brooks someday in Could 2020, in accordance with her plea settlement. Brooks gave her alcohol and marijuana, she turned intoxicated, and he had intercourse along with her 5 instances whereas she was unconscious over the weekend, she mentioned in her plea.
Iowa’s age for sexual consent is 16, although teenagers ages 14 and 15 can consent with individuals who are not more than 48 months older than them, in accordance with Iowa regulation.
“I didn’t need to have intercourse with Mr. Brooks,” Lewis mentioned in her plea. “I didn’t need to go to Mr. Brooks’ condo, however I had no different place to go.”
The day earlier than the killing, on Could 31, 2020, the person who allegedly trafficked Lewis threatened her at knifepoint to drive her to go to Brooks’ condo once more, in accordance with the settlement. It mentioned Brooks picked Lewis up at 10 p.m. and deliberate to present the person $50 price of marijuana in change for Lewis performing intercourse acts, her attorneys wrote.
THIS IS AMERICA:‘What it means to be the kid of a rape’: New novel tackles large questions at a turbulent
As soon as Lewis bought to Brooks’ condo, he ordered her to take her garments off, in accordance with her plea. Brooks and two different individuals pressured her into ingesting vodka and smoking marijuana whereas they watched a film, in accordance with a search warrant.
“My preliminary thought was that Mr. Brooks was drunk and would seemingly go to sleep whereas watching the film,” Lewis wrote in her plea. “I believed that this was the one strategy to cease him from having intercourse with me.”
However Lewis fell asleep first. When she awakened, Brooks was raping her, she mentioned in court docket paperwork. She screamed for him to get off her, however could not cease him, she mentioned.
Afterward, she gathered her garments whereas Brooks slept, she mentioned in her plea. She mentioned that is when she noticed the knife on the close by nightstand and snapped.
“I immediately realized that Mr. Brooks had raped me but once more and (I) was overcome with rage,” Lewis wrote in her plea.
After the killing, Lewis mentioned, she fled from Brooks’ condo in his Dodge Charger and ended up again on the condo of the person who allegedly trafficked her. A upkeep man discovered Brooks’ physique that night. Police arrested Lewis on the man’s condo the subsequent day.
Lewis’ case is ‘good instance’ of the management utilized by human traffickers
Patrick Waymire, Iowa Division of Public Security intelligence director, informed the Register final 12 months the connection Lewis described with the person is a “good instance” of human trafficking. Lewis mentioned in her plea that she thought-about the person her boyfriend. Traffickers make victims really feel like they’re a part of their household so they’ll by no means depart, Waymire mentioned.
“It is an ideal instance of management,” mentioned Waymire, who was not concerned within the investigation of the killing. “That is a method individuals management someone else.”
Victims typically don’t notice they’re victims, mentioned Gretchen Brown-Waech, sufferer rights and human trafficking coordinator within the Iowa Legal professional Common’s Workplace.
“Power is what individuals consider. That is not quite common,” Brown-Waech mentioned. “Fraud is barely extra widespread and simpler to show. Coercion is the one which’s most typical, least understood and least confirmed.”
If you’re a survivor of sexual assault, RAINN affords help by the Nationwide Sexual Assault Hotline (800.656.HOPE & on-line.rainn.org).
