Teen Who Killed Her Alleged Rapist Sentenced to Probation, Must Pay $150,000 Restitution to Man’s Family

The Polk County Courthouse in Des Moines, Iowa. Screenshot/Google Maps

A 17-year-old victim of sex trafficking who killed a man she accused of raping her received a deferred prison sentence on Tuesday and was ordered by an Iowa court to pay restitution to the dead man’s family.

When Pieper Lewis was 15, she stabbed 37-year-old Zachary Brooks more than 30 times in a Des Moines, Iowa, apartment. Officials have said Lewis was a runaway who tried to escape her abusive adoptive mother and was sleeping in the hallways of a Des Moines apartment building when a 28-year-old man took her in before forcibly trafficking her to other men for sex, including Brooks.

Lewis said Brooks had raped her multiple times in the weeks before his death, and that the 28-year-old man who trafficked her had forced her at knifepoint to go to Brooks’s apartment.

In June 2020, Lewis, in a fit of rage, grabbed a knife and stabbed Brooks, killing him in the process.

In 2021, Lewis pleaded guilty to willful injury and involuntary manslaughter, charges that are punishable by up to 10 years in prison each. On Tuesday, Polk County District Judge David M. Porter deferred both prison terms and instead sentenced Lewis to five years of supervised probation.

If Lewis violates any part of her probation, she could be sent to prison. In addition, Lewis was ordered to pay $150,000 in restitution to Brooks’s family.

“This court is presented with no other option,” Porter said about the restitution, which is mandatory under Iowa law.

The judge said he was concerned that Lewis sometimes didn’t want to follow the rules at the juvenile facility where she stayed while her case moved through the court.

“The next five years of your life will be full of rules you disagree with, I’m sure of it,“ he said. ”This is the second chance that you’ve asked for. You don’t get a third.”

Lewis was slated to be sentenced the previous week. However, her sentencing was delayed after her lawyers brought multiple witnesses to the court who testified that Lewis should not go to prison as she was deemed not a threat to the community.

Safe Harbor Laws

Prosecutors did not dispute that Lewis was trafficked and sexually assaulted. However, they did point out that at the time she stabbed Brooks, the man was asleep, and thus not an immediate danger to the girl.

Prosecutors argued that Lewis’s action left Brooks’s children without a father and that she failed to take responsibility for the stabbing.

Lewis’s sentencing has triggered a heated debate over safe harbor laws for trafficking victims in Iowa. Such laws could offer protection for trafficking victims against liability or penalty provided certain conditions are met.

Earlier in 2022, the Iowa House passed a bill to create a safe harbor law. However, it failed to pass the Senate due to concerns raised by law enforcement groups.

Stephan Bayens, commissioner at the Iowa Department of Public Safety, pointed out that the proposed bill provided trafficking victims with blanket immunity, something he was worried about.

“If a victim of human trafficking was abusing a child, they could be immune from prosecution,” Bayens told Radio Iowa. “Even if they had committed attempted murder, they could be immune from prosecution, so I think there are some significant issues there.”

Leland Schipper, one of Lewis’s former teachers, set up a GoFundMe page to help raise $150,000 to pay the restitution. At the time of publication on Sept. 14, the campaign had raised over $182,000 and the goal had been increased to $200,000.

In an update to the fundraiser, Schipper said that after the restitution is covered, the rest of the funds collected will be given to Lewis to continue her education or start a business, and also so she can help other young victims of sex crimes.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.