An Iowa teen who fatally stabbed her alleged rapist could face up to 20 years in prison.
Pieper Lewis, 17, pleaded guilty in June 2021 to voluntary manslaughter and willful injury in the June 2020 killing of 37-year-old Zachary Brooks.
The teen is set to be sentenced Wednesday in a Polk County Courtroom in Des Moines.
Pieper claims she stabbed Brooks 30 times in the chest, arms and groin after he allegedly sexually assaulted her multiple times in the days leading up to the killing, in the name of self-defense.
According to Pieper’s plea agreement, the teen who was only 15 at the time, said she ran away from home three times between January and March 2020 before she started sleeping in the hallway of a building in Des Moines.
Pieper said, “I briefly stayed with a man in the building, but I left after he became verbally, physically and sexually abusive towards me shortly after I moved into his apartment.”
She continued in her plea agreement statement, “I then moved in with another man who lived across the hall and lived with him from mid-April until her arrest on June 2, 2020. After I moved in, the man created a dating profile for me and put it on a dating website. The man would arrange for me to have sex with men for money.”
She said she was introduced to Brooks in May of 2020 and stayed with him for three days, alleging that during that time he sexually assaulted her on multiple occasions.
She said she was forced to return to Brooks’ apartment after the man she was staying with wanted her to go to Mr. Brooks apartment to get marijuana.
“He told me that I needed to ‘turn that trick’ to ‘get us some weed,'” she said.
Pieper claims when she refused to go, the man grabbed a knife from the kitchen counter and pressed it against her neck. “He cut my neck with the knife and this frightened me. When I agreed to meet with Mr. Brooks, the man removed the knife from my throat.”
Pieper then testified that Brooks picked her up in a parking lot on May 31, and brought her back to his apartment, where she said he forced her to drink vodka and smoke pot before he sexually assaulted her.
After the attack, Pieper said Brooks fell asleep. However, as she was getting ready to leave she saw a knife with a black sheath on his night stand.
“I suddenly realized that Mr. Brooks had raped me yet again and was overcome with rage,” she said. “Without thinking, I immediately grabbed the knife from his nightstand and began stabbing him.”
Pieper was arrested and charged with first-degree murder. According to the Register, the age of consent in Iowa is 16 years old.
Pieper recently graduated from high school while being held in juvenile detention.
Her attorney’s have not made a statement, but prosecutors have never disputed the claims that Pieper was the victim of sex trafficking and sexual assault.
If I had the power I would pardon her. It was self defense and I don’t care if he was sleeping or not. He and the others would have raped her again. She doesn’t deserve to be in prison. She deserves to finally have as normal life as possible considering what she has been through.
I agree with you. This poor lady deserves a break as it seems that she was victimized against her will. I think that her actions were a result of self-defense. Nobody had a right to sexually assault /or rape this lady.
Scumbag rapist. NEXT??!!
This is B.S! Let that baby go, she has been through enough. He deserves it.
What low life could possibly sentence her to do time after what she has been through?
Sounds like she made bad choices,in whom she picked the bum off of.why didn’t she stay home.
So the rapist got death, good riddance. The run-away/prostitute/drug mule is going to get 10 years for murder 2 as in her own testimony she “could have left but was so filled with rage she attacked the sleeping man.”
+Win for society
-don’t join yourself to a life of crime, stay home
See Patty H.
Don’t know if judge or the jury set sentences in Iowa, but let’s hope whoever does realizes this young girl has suffered enough already and sets her free. Then Justice will have been served.
This is so absurd. The corrupt and moronic judicial system blaming the victim. Victims either have to give in and let the criminals have their way or face being punished for protecting themselves.
She deserves to stay in juvenile detention until 18-21 and get the proper mental help that she needs badly. She needs to know who she us and get to the reason why she ran away …. If she don’t get the proper mental help she will be screwed up for the rest of her life …
She don’t deserve they many years in an adult jail
What a terrible start in life for her. Can anybody tell me they couldn’t understand the mental/emotional/physical trauma she went through at such a young age? Image if it was your sister or daughter that was put through the same ordeal? Almighty Father, help this young woman be free again to live a normal life and help her overcome all the pain she endured.
Come on Rwanda, use proper English. You sound like a street stupe.
Let the American negro be themselves!
Our justice system is so screwed up that it will prosecute a young person that has been obviously sexually abused and held against her will, terrorized and mentally abused. So, murder is a crime, but it seems to me that in this instance the young woman felt as if even if she left, he would come after her, find her and I fluct mire pain & terror upon her. Seems to be self-defense, to me. She should be given an award for escaping her difficult circumstances and eliminating the threat in the process. No I e has the right to abuse & terrify another person, sexually. Period. The man got everything he deserved. Let’s help her get her life back, not inflict more pain & sufgering.
Our justice system is so screwed up that it will prosecute a young person that has been obviously sexually abused and held against her will, terrorized and mentally abused. So, murder is a crime, but it seems to me that in this instance the young woman felt as if even if she left, he would come after her, find her and inflict more pain & terror upon her. Seems to be self-defense, to me. She should be given an award for escaping her difficult circumstances and eliminating the threat in the process. No one has the right to abuse & terrify another person, sexually. Period. The man got everything he deserved. Let’s help her get her life back, not inflict more pain & sufgering.
*Suffering
*inflict more
Please ignore last “comment”.. This is not user friendly! Why can’t I delete my own comment?