Slender Man Stabbing: Morgan Geyser To Avoid Prison In Plea Deal

WAUKESHA, WI — Morgan Geyser, one of two Wisconsin girls charged with stabbing a classmate 19 times to to satisfy the fictional horror character Slender Man, will plead guilty in a deal that will allow her to avoid prison and instead receive mental health treatment, attorneys announced Friday.

Under the deal, doctors will evaluate the 15-year-old and report to a judge to determine how long she should remain in a state mental hospital.

A jury earlier this month determined Geyser's co-defendant, Anissa Weier, was mentally ill at the time of the attack on classmate Payton Leutner. Weier faces at least three years in a mental hospital. (For more information on the Slender Man stabbing and other Waukesha stories, subscribe to Patch to receive daily newsletters and breaking news alerts. If you have an iPhone, click here to get the free Patch iPhone app.)

Watch: Wisconsin Teen Reaches Plea In Slender Man Case

Weier and Geyser lured Leutner into a wooded area of a park in Waukesha, near Milwaukee. Geyser stabbed Leutner 19 times as Weier egged her on, investigators said. Leutner survived and crawled out of the woods to a path where she was found by a bicyclist.

All three girls were 12 at the time.

Both Weier and Geyser told detectives they had to kill Leutner to become Slender Man's "proxies," or servants, and protect their families from him.

"It's been a tragic experience for everyone," Geyser's attorney, Donna Kuchler, said after the brief court hearing. "Our hearts go out to the victim and her family. And we're very grateful that the district attorney's office gave this case the considering it deserves."

Geyser and Weier were charged with attempted first-degree intentional homicide, which carries a possible sentence of up to 65 years in prison. Weier pleaded guilty to a reduced charge last month, and a jury then determined the sentence.

Unlike Weier, Geyser will plead guilty to the original charge from prosecutors. But Geyser won't face a sentencing phase where attorneys would argue that she was mentally ill when the crime occurred and shouldn't face prison time. A plea hearing to formalize Geyser's deal is Thursday.

"It's just fair. It saves everybody a trial," Kuchler said.

During a hearing in August, Weier said that she didn't want to harm Leutner and that the stabbing plot was Geyser's idea. She said she participated because she was afraid of what would happen if she didn't.

"I believed that if I didn't go through with it, Slender Man would come and attack and kill myself, my friends and my family. Those I cared about the most," she said.

Slender Man started with an online post in 2009, as a mysterious specter whose image people edit into everyday scenes of children at play. He is typically depicted as a spidery figure in a black suit with a featureless white face. He was regarded by his devotees as alternately a sinister force and an avenging angel.

Photo credit: Michael Sears/Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel via AP