17-year-old Pieper Lewis speaks during her sentencing hearing after pleading guilty to involuntary manslaughter on Sept. 13, 2022, in Des Moines, Iowa. Zach Boyden-Holmes/The Des Moines Register via AP A 17-year-old pleaded guilty to killing the man that she said raped her.
Pieper Lewis had her prison sentence deferred, and was ordered to pay $150,000 to his family. She was 15 when she was repeatedly raped by Zachary Brooks, an Iowa court heard. An 17-year-old in Iowa who pleaded guilty to killing the man she accused of raping her was ordered to pay $150,000 to the alleged rapist’s family.
Pieper Lewis, who pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter and willful injury, and was given a deferred judgment on each of the two 10-year prison sentences for those crimes on Tuesday, the Associated Press reported. That means she won’t go to prison unless she breaks the terms of her probation. Polk County District Judge David Porter said on Tuesday that the “court is presented with no other option” but to require her to pay the $150,000, which he said was clear in Iowa law, the AP reported.
She was initially charged with first-degree murder, according to the AP. Lewis, a foster child, was 15 and homeless when she said she was was repeatedly raped. Her defense lawyers said she was caught in a sex-trafficking arrangement between her then-boyfriend and the man she killed, Zachary Brooks, according to the Des Moines Register.
Prosecutors did not dispute Lewis’ allegations of rape or sex trafficking in the case, per the AP, but as Brooks is dead there is no way for him to be formally found guilty. In May 2020, Brooks’ boyfriend told her to go and stay with Brooks, who plied her with alcohol and marijuana, according to her plea agreement, seen by the Register. Brooks then had sex with her while she was unconscious five times, which she said she did not want to do, the document reportedly said.
Her lawyers described how, on May 31, the boyfriend then threatened her with a knife and told her to go to Brooks’ house again, where he would receive $50 worth of marijuana in exchange for sex acts with Lewis. Her lawyers said that, again pressured into drinking and smoking marijuana, Lewis fell asleep and woke to find that she was being raped. After Brooks fell asleep, she grabbed a knife from the table next to him, she told officials, per the AP.
“I suddenly realized that Mr. Brooks had raped me yet again and [I] was overcome with rage,” the Register quotes her as saying. She then stabbed him more than 30 times, killing him, the paper reported.
The age of consent in Iowa is 16, but the law stipulates that 14- and 15-year-olds can consent to sex with people aged within 48 months of them. Brooks was 37 when he was killed, the Register reported. Lewis, who graduated high school while in detention, said she wants to become an advocate for juvenile justice, the paper reported.
Porter also ordered her to complete 1,200 hours of community service, and will stay at the Fresh Start Women’s Center, a women’s correctional facility, per the paper. She read from a prepared statement at the sentencing. “My spirit has been burned, but still glows through the flames,” the AP reported her as saying.
“Hear me roar, see me glow, and watch me grow. “Read the original article on Insider.
From: insider
URL: https://www.insider.com/iowa-teen-told-pay-150k-alleged-rapist-family-killed-reports-2022-9
