Pieper Lewis
A 17-year-old girl is set to spend five years on probation and must pay $150,000 in restitution to the family of the man she said raped her. Pieper Lewis was sentenced in Iowa on Tuesday for fatally stabbing Zachary Brooks, 37, according to reports.
Judge David M. Porter essentially said his hands were tied regarding the restitution.
“This court is presented with no other option,” he said, according to The Associated Press. It is required under Iowa law, which was upheld by the state Supreme Court, he said.
A GoFundMe campaign to cover the cost on Lewis’ behalf reached $242,192 as of Wednesday afternoon.
Porter expressed concern, saying Lewis sometimes did not want to follow rules in juvenile detention.
“This is the second chance that you’ve asked for,” he reportedly said. “You don’t get a third.”
The prosecution & defense finished closing remarks. One big thing from the prosecution is they DO NOT recommend 10 years for each of the two counts. They recommend a women’s fresh start facility, receive mental health care & subject to GPS monitoring at the clinic. @WHO13news
— Zach Fisher (@ZachFisherNews) September 13, 2022
Lewis reportedly said she ran away from home to get away from an unstable home life. She lived with a series of people until landing with a certain man who forced her to have relations with other men for pay, even signing her up on dating websites. One of those other men was Brooks, who raped her multiple times until she stabbed him to death on June 1, 2020, she said. She pleaded guilty to charges in adult court.
The man who allegedly subjected her to sexual abuse in the first place has not been charged.
“The matter is still pending and we do not comment on pending matters,” Polk County attorney John Sarcone said, according to The New York Times.
A social case manager with the Iowa Dept. of Human Services is being questioned.
She testified that Pieper “was being used for money or drugs by adults and being given to adult men.”
She estimated that this was going on 3 to 4 months before the offense. @WHO13news #PieperLewis pic.twitter.com/QsP23lzJfb
— Zach Fisher (@ZachFisherNews) September 7, 2022
Lewis said she had believed this man to be her boyfriend, but before that final visit to Brooks’ apartment, that “boyfriend” put a knife to her neck because she refused to go to Brooks’ home to pick up marijuana and be subjected to sexual abuse.
In describing the stabbing, Lewis said she planned on escaping Brooks’ home “at first light” if he passed out intoxicated, but instead, he plied her with vodka and marijuana, she said. She fell asleep and woke up to find him raping her, she said, according to the Times. Lewis said she lost consciousness.
She later “saw a box of KY Jelly and a knife with a black sheath lying on one of his night stands next to his bed.” He was “lying in his bed passed out,” she said.
“Without thinking, I immediately grabbed the knife from his night stand and began stabbing him,” she said.
Authorities did not dispute her abuse claims, but prosecutors said Brooks was sleeping when Lewis stabbed him more than 30 times, according to the Associated Press. He was not an immediate danger to her, they reportedly said.
“Hear me roar, see me glow and watch me grow. Like a flower a rose pedal in the wind I fly away, I let go of my past and drift beautifully in the future.” Pieper says as she finishes her remarks:@WHO13news #PieperLewis pic.twitter.com/hH95t91Puh
— Zach Fisher (@ZachFisherNews) September 13, 2022
Note: We added information about a GoFundMe to support Lewis.
[Screenshot via WHO13]
