Pieper Lewis, 17, of Descendants in Iowa, escaped from a residential correction facility after he raped me and stabbed me with a knife
Pieper Lewis, the Iowa teenager who killed a man she said raped her and was sentenced to probation and ordered to pay restitution to his family, has escaped from a residential corrections facility, according to Iowa’s Fifth Judicial District Department of Corrections.
Lewis left the Fresh Start Women’s Center on Friday at 6:19 a.m. after cutting off her electronic monitoring device, according to Jerry Evans, the district’s executive director. “At this time, her whereabouts are unknown.”
Evans said that officials had filed a report about her violation of the terms of her sentence. There is an outstanding warrant issued for her arrest.
“I suddenly realized that Mr. Brooks had raped me yet again and was overcome with rage. Lewis stated in his plea agreement that he immediately grabbed the knife from his nightstand and began stabbing him. “I further acknowledge that the multiple stab wounds that I inflicted upon Mr. Brooks thereafter ultimately resulted in his death.”
Porter ruled that Lewis would be sentenced to five years of deferred sentence, serve an additional 200 hours of community service and pay $4,000 in civil penalties. It was erased from Lewis’ record because of the deferred judgment.
Lewis escaped from a residentialcorrections facility, according to the Fifth Judicial Circuit Department ofCorrections website. It “accepts residents with varied legal status,” who might be admitted “as a condition of probation or parole,” it says. The website states the program aims to provide a safe andholistic approach to supervision that seeks to educate, support and advocate for all women.
On May 31, the man with whom Lewis lived with confronted her with a knife after she refused his order to go to Brooks’ apartment to have sex with Brooks in exchange for marijuana, she wrote. Eventually she agreed to go after he cut her neck, she said in the plea.
In ordering community service, Judge Porter said it would give Lewis the opportunity to tell her “story to other young and vulnerable women in our community.
The court gave Lewis a deferral of her sentence, and her attorney praised her courage. But advocates for victims of sexual violence disagreed.
A GoFundMe campaign to end sex trafficking restitution in the U.S., ending a life sentence for killing a man she abused
“Because I know that many of the ways that trauma survivors deal with their trauma is not understood very well by folks that haven’t experienced trauma, which can sometimes lead to behaviors that get folks in trouble,” she said.
“It’s just a story that has unfortunately become all too familiar,” Cyntoia Brown told “PBS Newshour.” Brown was given a life sentence for killing a man she was raped by when she was 16 years old. She spent half of her life behind bars but was granted clemency in 2019.
A sex trafficking victim who escaped from a women’s center where she was being held for her sentence for killing a man she raped got away from a parole officer.
Prosecutors had called the probation sentence she was given in September merciful for a teen who endured horrible abuse, although some questioned the $150,000 restitution she was ordered to pay. A GoFundMe campaign raised over $560,000 to cover the restitution and pay for her other needs.