A teenage sex-trafficking victim from Iowa who stabbed her rapist to death was sentenced by a judge Tuesday to five years of strict supervision and must pay $150,000 in restitution to her rapist’s family. Pieper Lewis, 17, stabbed her abuser, 37-year-old Zachary Brooks, more than 30 times in June 2020. She was initially charged with first-degree murder. Last year, Lewis pleaded to involuntary manslaughter and willful injury, both punishable by up to 10 years in prison. But Polk County Judge David Porter suspended those prison terms Tuesday, meaning Lewis could serve 20 years if she violates her probation. Porter said he ordered Lewis to pay restitution to Brooks’ family because the court “had no other choice.” He explained that restitution is mandatory under Iowa law. SAN FRANCISCO POLICE UNION: MAYOR’S CRIME FIGHT IS ‘RECOGNITION’ THAT POLICE WAS ‘WRONG’ Pieper Lewis, 17, stabbed her abuser, 37-year-old Zachary Brooks, more than 30 times in June 2020. She was initially charged with first-degree murder.
Lewis, who was 15 when she stabbed Brooks in a Des Moines apartment, had run away from home to escape her abusive stepmother. She was sleeping in the hallways of an apartment building when Christopher Brown, 28, took her inside and began trafficking her to other men for sex, officials said. Among those men was Brooks, who said Lewis raped her several times before killing him. She recalled being forced at knifepoint to go to his apartment for sex. After Brooks raped her for the last time, Lewis grabbed a knife from a nightstand and stabbed him. Neither police nor prosecutors dispute whether Lewis was trafficked and assaulted, but prosecutors say Brooks did not pose an immediate threat because he was asleep when he was stabbed. Iowa is not among the dozens of states with a safe harbor law that provides trafficking victims with some level of criminal immunity. Lewis will be moved to a halfway house in Des Moines and will wear a GPS tracking device to ensure she doesn’t “fall back into the lifestyle you’ve been leaving until now,” Porter said. He must also complete 200 hours of community service. “My spirit has been burned, but it still shines through the flames,” she read from a prepared statement before her sentencing. “Hear me roar, see me shine, and see me grow.” Last year, Lewis pleaded to involuntary manslaughter and willful wounding.
THREE CHILDREN DEAD AFTER REAL DROWNING AT CONEY ISLAND BEACH, MOTHER RECOVERED “I am alive,” he continued. Prosecutors took issue with Lewis describing herself as a survivor, claiming she did not take responsibility for Brooks’ death and left his children fatherless. The judge pressed Lewis to explain the poor choices he made that led to the stabbing and noted his concerns that he sometimes did not want to follow the rules in juvenile detention. “The next five years of your life are going to be full of rules you disagree with, I’m sure of that,” Porter said, later adding, “This is the second chance you asked for. You don’t get a third.” Lewis said, “I took a person’s life. My intentions that day were not just to go out and take someone’s life. In my mind, I felt unsafe and I felt I was in danger, which he had as result of the acts. But it does not remove the fact that a crime was committed”. He said he regretted the stabbing, “but to say there is a victim is absurd.” Prosecutors took issue with Lewis describing herself as a survivor, arguing that she did not take responsibility for Brooks’ death and left his children fatherless.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Iowa has an affirmative defense law that offers some leeway to victims of a crime if the victim committed the offense “under duress by the threat of serious injury to another, provided the defendant reasonably believed that such injury was imminent.” But prosecutors argued that Lewis waived that affirmative defense when she pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter and wounding. Lewis earned her GED while in juvenile detention and unable to communicate with friends and family. The Associated Press contributed to this report.