Iowa teen who killed her alleged rapist sentenced to pay $150,000 to her family

By Margery A. Beck

A teenage victim of human trafficking who was initially charged with first-degree murder for stabbing to death her alleged rapist was sentenced by an Iowa court Tuesday to five years of closely supervised probation and to pay $150,000 in restitution to the family. of the man.

Pieper Lewis, 17, was sentenced Tuesday after she pleaded guilty last year to involuntary manslaughter and intentional injury in the June 2020 murder of Zachary Brooks, 37, of Des Moines. Both counts were punished. with up to 10 years in prison.

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Polk County District Judge David M. Porter on Tuesday deferred those prison sentences, meaning that if Lewis violates any part of her probation, she could be sent to prison to serve out that 20-year sentence.

As for the obligation to pay her rapist's estate, "this court is presented with no other choice," Porter explained, noting that restitution is mandatory under Iowa law that has been upheld by the state Supreme Court.

Lewis was 15 years old when he stabbed Brooks more than 30 times in a Des Moines apartment.

Lewis was a runaway looking to escape an abusive life with her adoptive mother, and she was sleeping in the hallways of a Des Moines apartment building when a 28-year-old man took her in.

But she later started listing her on dating websites for her to have sex with other men.

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Lewis testified that one of those men was Brooks and that he had raped her multiple times in the weeks before her death.

She said the 28-year-old man forced her at knifepoint to go with Brooks to her apartment to have sex.

She said that after Brooks raped her one more time, she grabbed a knife from the nightstand and stabbed Brooks in a fit of rage.

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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 posed no immediate danger to Lewis.

Iowa is not among dozens of states that have a so-called safe harbor law, which gives victims of trafficking at least some level of criminal immunity.

Lewis, who earned her GED while in juvenile detention, acknowledged in a statement before her sentencing that she had problems with her detention, including "why they treated me like fragile glass” or I was not allowed to communicate with their friends or relatives.

“My spirit has been burned, but it continues to shine through the flames.

Hear me roar, see me shine and see me grow,” he read from a statement he had prepared.

“I am a survivor,” she added.

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The Associated Press doesn't typically name victims of sexual assault, but Lewis has agreed to have his name previously used in reporting on his case.

Prosecutors did not accept that Lewis called herself a victim in the case, saying she did not take responsibility for stabbing Brooks and "leaving her children fatherless."

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The judge peppered Lewis with repeated requests to explain the poor decisions she made that led to Brooks' stabbing, and expressed concern that she sometimes didn't want to follow the rules set for her in juvenile hall.

"The next five years of your life will be full of rules that you don't agree with, I'm sure of it," Porter said.

He then added, “This is the second chance you've asked for.

You don't have a third,” he stated.

Karl Schilling of the Iowa Organization for Victim Assistance said a bill to create a safe harbor for trafficking victims passed the Iowa House earlier this year, but stalled in the Senate over concerns from law enforcement groups that it was too broad.

[She had a son as a result of a rape and says that she carried "chains that she did not deserve"]

“A working group was created to iron out rough edges.

Hopefully it will pick up again next year,” Shilling said.

Iowa has an affirmative defense law that gives crime victims some leeway if the victim committed the offense “under duress by the threat of another to suffer serious harm, provided the defendant reasonably believed such harm was imminent.”

Prosecutors argued Tuesday that Lewis gave up that affirmative defense when he pleaded guilty to manslaughter and intentional injury.