Geyser Files Appeal In Slender Man Case

WAUKESHA, WI — Morgan Geyser, the second of two Wisconsin girls who tried to kill a classmate with a knife to satisfy the fictional character Slender Man has appealed her case in Waukesha court on Monday.

According to a JSOnline report Monday, an attorney representing Geyser said she shouldn't have been prosecuted as an adult. Her attorney maintains that Geyser believed Slender Man would kill her family had she not tried to kill Payton Leutner in 2014, and that her subsequent statement to police was made without her realizing a number legal consequences.

Waukesha County Circuit Court Judge Michael Bohren ordered Geyser to serve 40 years in a mental institution in Feb. 2018. She and Anissa Weier were found not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect.

According to a Journal Sentinel report, Bohren decided on the maximum term after experts said Geyser "could receive more effective treatment for her schizophrenia somewhere other than the Winnebago Mental Health Institute." She will remain at a secure state institution in Oshkosh, according to the report.

12-Year-Olds Plotted Murder

Geyser and Anissa E. both plotted for months to kill Leutner, luring her to a weekend birthday-party sleepover and then a wooded park in Waukesha where one of the girls they stabbed her repeatedly, according to authorities.

According to court documents, in 2014, one child held Leutner to the ground while the other plunged the knife into her chest, arms and legs a total of 19 times, according to police. After the incident, Leutner, also 12, was barely alive when she crawled to a nearby road in Waukesha, Wisconsin, where a passing bicyclist found her the next morning.

Leutner underwent surgery at Waukesha Memorial Hospital before she made a faster-than-expected recovery and was back in school a few months later.

Fascinated With Slender Man

According to court documents, the girls were said to be fascinated with the story of Slender Man, a killer of children. According to the criminal complaint, the girls planned to kill their friend so they could be "proxies of Slender Man."

Prosecutors said the girls planned the attack for months. They planned to walk hundreds of miles north in the forest to meet Slender Man — a tall, thin, blank-faced figure in a black suit alternatively viewed as a force of evil or an avenging angel.

Earlier, the 2nd District Appeals court affirmed a lower court's determination that it was reasonable to try both girls as adults. Citing the ruling in 2017, the appeals court said if the girls were found guilty in the juvenile system they would have been released at age 18 with no supervision or mental health treatment.

Morgan Geyser, 15, appears for sentencing before Waukesha County Circuit Judge Michael Bohren, Thursday, Feb. 1, 2018 in Waukesha, Wis. Geyser is one of two girls who tried to kill a classmate with a knife to appease fictional horror character Slender Man. Prosecutors want Geyser to spend the maximum 40 years in a mental hospital for stabbing Payton Leutner in suburban Milwaukee in 2014. (Rick Wood/Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel via AP, Pool)