Posted: 19:17, September 6, 2022 | Updated: 19:17, September 6, 2022
A teenage girl caught in a sex-trafficking scheme will be sentenced Wednesday after pleading guilty to killing her alleged rapist by stabbing him 30 times when she was 15.
Pieper Lewis, 17, will stand trial for the murder of Zachary Brooks, 37, at a Des Moines, Iowa home located at 1516 Evergreen Ave. on June 1, 2020. Brooks allegedly raped Lewis several times before killing him.
Lewis killed her rapist after attacking her. He found the knife on the nightstand and stabbed him repeatedly.
The 17-year-old claimed the killing was not premeditated and her actions were full of “rage”.
He was arrested for murder on June 2, 2020, and will appear for sentencing Wednesday morning in Polk County Criminal Court, according to the Des Moines Register.
The victim has been sitting in a jail cell since her arrest and graduated high school in July. She pleaded guilty in 2021 to involuntary manslaughter and willful injury in 2021 and faces decades in prison.
Lewis’ attorney Matthew Sheeley was not immediately available for comment.
Pieper Lewis, 17, will appear in court for the slaying of Zachary Brooks, 37, in Iowa on June 1, 2020. Lewis said she was a victim of sex trafficking
He was arrested for murder on June 2, 2020, after police received a call the night of the incident claiming Brooks’ death was a suicide
Lewis will appear in Polk County Criminal Court on Wednesday
Police investigated the 17-year-old’s relationships with older men, according to court records obtained by the Des Moines Register.
Iowa law states that the legal age of consent for sex is 16. Those under 13 cannot consent to sex, but 14 and 15 can consent to sex within 48 months of their age.
Lewis was 15 when she was allegedly raped multiple times.
The night Brooks was killed in 2020, someone called authorities to report a suicide. Police arrived later and found the body, but said it did not appear that she had taken her own life, according to KCCI.
News of the 15-year-old’s arrest went viral but her identity was not released at the time.
Police arrived at the Iowa home (above) and found Brooks dead after a reported 2020 suicide
Police investigated Lewis’ relationships with older men. Lewis was 15 when she was allegedly raped, and Iowa law sets the legal age of consent for sex at 16
Those involved in a homicide in Iowa are required to pay the victims’ families $150,000, according to state law. However, Lewis’ lawyers asked that this law be ignored because the 17-year-old was the victim of a crime.
Human trafficking cases are notoriously complex, and Lewis’ case will take time to properly investigate, said Des Moines Police Sgt. Paul Parizek said in November.
“With all criminal investigations, gathering the necessary evidence to support a charge and meet the standards for filing criminal charges can take some time,” Parizek told the Des Moines Register.
Legally, Brooks’ actions would also have been a crime since Lewis was a minor and non-consenting.
