Fundraiser for Iowa teen who killed her alleged rapist doubles the amount she was ordered to pay his family
A fundraiser was launched for Pieper Lewis, now 17, after she was mandated to pay her alleged rapist's family $150,000.
A fundraiser was launched in support of a teenage human trafficking victim who was ordered to pay $150,000 to the family of her accused rapist for fatally stabbing him two years ago. It has now raised more than double what she owed.
Pieper Lewis, 17, who was initially charged with first-degree murder, was sentenced Tuesday in an Iowa court to five years of closely supervised probation and ordered to pay $150,000 restitution to the family of Zachary Brooks, 37, who she fatally stabbed in June 2020.
Officials previously said Lewis was a runaway who had sought to escape an abusive life with her adopted mother and found herself sleeping in the hallways of a Des Moines apartment building when a 28-year-old man took her in, but later forcibly trafficked her to other men for sex.
She was 15 years old when she stabbed Brooks more than 30 times in a Des Moines apartment after allegedly being repeatedly raped by him in the weeks leading up to the incident.
Police and prosecutors have not disputed that Lewis was sexually assaulted and trafficked. But prosecutors have argued that Brooks was asleep at the time he was stabbed and not an immediate danger to Lewis.
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