A teenage sex trafficking victim who killed her rapist was sentenced to five years of closely supervised probation and has been ordered to pay $150,000 restitution to her abuser’s family.
The judge handed down the sentence on Tuesday for the Iowa teen.
Pieper Lewis, who was 15 when she stabbed 37-year-old Zachary Brooks, in a Des Moines apartment, had run away from home to escape her abusive adoptive mother. Officials said she was sleeping in the halls of an apartment building when Christopher Brown, 28, took her in and began trafficking her to other men for sex. One of those men was Brooks, who Lewis said raped her multiple times.
She detailed being forced at knife point to go to his apartment as Brooks raped her. However, it would be his last time as Lewis grabbed a knife off a bedside table and stabbed him 30 times.
The incident went down in June 2020 and just last year, Lewis pleaded to involuntary manslaughter and willful injury, both of which were punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
She was initially charged with first-degree murder. However, Polk County District Judge David Porter deferred those prison sentences on Tuesday, meaning Lewis could still serve 20 years if she violates her probation.
What’s even more eye-raising is that police nor prosecutors disputed whether Lewis was trafficked and assaulted, but prosecutors allege that Brooks was not an immediate threat at the time because he was asleep when he was stabbed….
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