A juvenile survivor of human trafficking was previously charged with first-degree murder after stabbing her abuser to death.
But, she was sentenced to five years of tightly monitored probation in Iowa on Tuesday. She must also give the man’s family $150,000 in reparation.
Pieper Lewis pled guilty last year to involuntary manslaughter and malicious harm in the death of 37-year-old Zachary Brooks. Each of the counts carries a potential jail term of ten years. Polk County District Judge David M. Porter postponed those jail sentences, but if the 17-year-old violates any of the terms of her probation, she will be sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Porter pointed out that the court has no option but to compel her to pay the rapist’s inheritance since it is required by Iowa law and has been upheld by the Iowa Supreme Court. Brooks was 15 years old when Lewis stabbed her more than 30 times in a Des Moines residence. Lewis, according to authorities, was a runaway seeking to avoid an abusive relationship with her adoptive mother. She was discovered sleeping in the corridors of a Des Moines apartment complex when a 28-year-old guy took her in and forcedly sold her to other men for sex.
She said that under the threat of a knife, the 28-year-old compelled her to accompany Brooks to his apartment for sex. She said that when Brooks sexually abused her again, she snatched a knife from a bedside table and stabbed him. The officers do not deny that Lewis was sexually abused and trafficked, but they feel Brooks was not a direct threat to her and was asleep at the time he was stabbed.
Lewis’ old instructor Leland Schipper set up a GoFundMe website to pay the compensation awarded by the court. The target was met in less than a day, and the campaign raised more than $300,000 for Lewis.
Pieper Lewis, who was 15-years-old when she killed a man she says raped her multiple times, must pay his family $150,000 in restitution according to an Iowa judge’s ruling. CNN’s @LucyKafanov has the details.
Posted by Jake Tapper on Thursday, September 15, 2022
Lewis received her GED while being detained in a juvenile jail institution prior to her sentence. She stated in a statement that she was having difficulty adapting to her confinement. She stated, her spirit has been scorched, yet it continues to shine through the flames. She survived. The prosecution contested Lewis’ assertion that she was a victim in the case, claiming that she failed to accept responsibility for Brooks’ stabbing and left his children without a dad.
According to Judge Porter, “I’m confident the next five years of your life will be filled with regulations you disagree with. This is the second opportunity you’ve requested. You are not entitled to a third.”
A bill to create a safe harbor act for victims of human trafficking passed the Iowa House but was defeated in the Senate owing to worries from law enforcement groups that it was too broad. Iowa is not one of the dozens of states that have passed so-called safe harbor legislation, which provides victims of human trafficking with some amount of criminal immunity.
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