Iowa human trafficking target requested to pay $150,000 immediately after killing accused rapist

Cami Mondeaux

September 14, 10:12 AM September 14, 10:12 AM

A teenage human trafficking victim in Iowa has been sentenced to five decades of supervised probation and have to pay hundreds of bucks right after being charged in the lethal stabbing of her accused rapist in 2020.

Pieper Lewis, 17, was sentenced on Tuesday, one particular 12 months right after she pleaded responsible to involuntary manslaughter and willful injury in the loss of life of Zachary Brooks more than two decades back. She will also be required to pay back $150,000 in restitution to Brooks’s family members just after prosecutors argued she still left his kids fatherless.

Law enforcement IN FLORIDA ARREST 160 IN 7-Working day HUMAN TRAFFICKING STING Operation

Lewis was just 15 a long time previous when she stabbed Brooks to loss of life in a Des Moines condominium in June 2020, according to officials. At the time, the teenager experienced operate away from property to escape her abusive adopted mom and was sleeping in the hallways of an apartment creating when a 28-yr-previous person took her in, according to officers. She was then forced into human trafficking and sold to other adult men for sex, they mentioned.

Brooks, 1 of the gentlemen she was sold to, raped her numerous situations prior to his dying, Lewis testified in court. At one stage, Lewis was compelled at knifepoint to go with Brooks to his condominium, she recalled.

Just after one incident in which she was raped, Lewis said she stabbed Brooks in a fit of rage though he was asleep, killing him. Having said that, prosecutors argued that mainly because Brooks was not awake at the time of the stabbing, he was not an instant threat to Lewis.

In the course of the demo, the choose pressed Lewis to depth the lousy conclusions that led up to Brooks’s death, expressing concerns about her actions in juvenile detention.

"The future 5 a long time of your life will be complete of rules you disagree with, I am positive of it," said Polk County District Choose David M. Porter. "This is the second chance that you have requested for. You do not get a 3rd."