DES MOINES, IA (AP) — A teenage human trafficking victim who was initially charged with first-degree murder after she stabbed her accused rapist to death has been sentenced to five years’ probation and ordered to pay $150,000 restitution to the man’s family. Seventeen-year-old Pieper Lewis was sentenced Tuesday after she pleaded guilty last year to involuntary manslaughter and willful injury in the June 2020 killing of 37-year-old Zachary Brooks. Lewis was 15 when she stabbed Brooks more than 30 times in a Des Moines apartment. Lewis has maintained that she was trafficked against her will to Brooks for sex multiple times and stabbed him in a fit of rage after he had raped her yet again. Police and prosecutors have not disputed that Lewis was sexually assaulted and trafficked.
Iowa teen who killed rapist sentenced, ordered to pay $150K
DES MOINES, IA (AP) — A teenage human trafficking victim who was initially charged with first-degree murder after she stabbed her accused rapist to death has been sentenced to five years’ probation and ordered to pay $150,000 restitution to the man’s family. Seventeen-year-old Pieper Lewis was sentenced Tuesday after she pleaded guilty last year to involuntary manslaughter and willful injury in the June 2020 killing of 37-year-old Zachary Brooks. Lewis was 15 when she stabbed Brooks more than 30 times in a Des Moines apartment. Lewis has maintained that she was trafficked against her will to Brooks for sex multiple times and stabbed him in a fit of rage after he had raped her yet again. Police and prosecutors have not disputed that Lewis was sexually assaulted and trafficked.