Sometimes, there’s a very thin line between murder and self-defense. A teen girl was caught up in a case where a judge had to decide where to draw the line.
Pieper Lewis was 15-years-old when she became a sex-trafficking victim. At the age of 17-years-old, the Iowa teen was charged with first-degree murder after stabbing her alleged rapist, 37-year-old Zachary Brooks, to death in June 2020, while he was sleeping next to her.
An Iowa court judge deferred the expected 20-year sentence, and instead ordered a five-year probation with close supervision, instead of jail time. A controversial $150,000 restitution was ordered. She has to pay the family of her rapist.
Lewis had pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter and willful injury. Both offenses carry a sentence recommendation of up to 10 years in prison. The judge’s decision to put her on probation was a huge gift.
On Tuesday, September 13, Judge David M. Porter deferred the two 10-year prison sentences. That means that if Lewis violates any part of her probation, she could be imprisoned for 20 years.
Judge Porter said the court had no other option than to order Pieper pay the restitution of $150,000 to the Brooks family. Restitution is mandatory under Iowa law, and the Iowa Supreme Court has upheld the law when challenged.
Lewis was only 15-years-old when she stabbed Brooks in a Des Moines apartment. She was a runaway from a home where she was subjected to abuse from her adoptive mother.
After running away, Pieper was sleeping in the halls of an apartment building. She was found by 28-year-old Christopher Brown, who took her in and took care of her, allegedly as her “boyfriend,” but he started forcibly trafficking her for sex in 2020.
Lewis was forced to have relations with many men, and Brooks was the straw that broke the camel’s back, so-to-speak. He had been with her several times in the weeks leading up to the murder.
Lewis hated being forced to go with Brooks but she says she was coerced at knifepoint. On the day of the murder, after Brooks had his way with her, she was full of rage, and she grabbed a knife from the table next to the bed and stabbed him over 30 times, while he was sleeping.
Although the police and the prosecutors acknowledged that Lewis was a victim of trafficking and sexual assault, the prosecutors argued that Brooks was not an immediate danger to Lewis because he was sleeping when she stabbed him.
Iowa is not one of 12 states that have safe harbor laws that provide criminal immunity to victims of sex trafficking and commercial sex exploitation.
Lewis will be living in a halfway house in Des Moines and wearing a GPS tracker. She has to complete 200 hours of community service.
Although Lewis read a statement and called herself a survivor, the judge reminded her that she had to take responsibility for the death of a man who left his children without a father.
Some say that Lewis got off easy for a violent crime. Others say she had no choice and was a victim.
The judge warned her that she must be on good behavior and that he had given her a second chance at life. He said that she would not get a third chance.
Iowa has a law that gives victims of crime some leeway if the victim committed the crime under threat or pressure. However, according to prosecutors, Lewis gave up that defense after pleading guilty to manslaughter and willful injury.
The story of Pieper Lewis has gone viral on social media. Many people sympathized with her and appreciated that the judge showed leniency.
The $150,000 that Pieper has to pay for restitution has already been promised by donations on Go Fund Me, plus more.