Teen Who Stabbed Classmate 19 Times To Impress 'Slender Man' Takes Plea

WAUKESHA, WI — One of the two Wisconsin teens accused of stabbing their classmate 19 times in 2014 to impress the fictional online horror character “Slender Man” pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of second-degree attempted homicide Monday, according to media reports. Anissa Weier, 15, will still go before a judge next month to determine her mental fitness.

Weier and her co-defendant Morgan Geyser, also 15, were charged with first-degree intentional homicide, and both initially pleaded not guilty by reason of mental illness or defect. Geyser has not taken a plea deal and is scheduled for trial in October.

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The two teens were 12 when they nearly stabbed their friend, Payton Leutner, to death during an overnight sleepover at Geyser’s Waukesha home in May 2014, investigators said. Leutner was barely alive when she crawled from the woods near Waukesha, where she was found by a passing bicyclist 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.

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During Monday’s hearing in Waukesha County Circuit Court, Weier said she thought that if she didn’t kill her friend, “Slender Man would come and attack and kill myself, my friends and my family. Those I cared about the most,” Courthouse News Service reported.

Sacrificing their friend ensured them special positions as “proxies” for Slender Man, a killer of children, police said, and the girls planned the attack for months. They planned to walk hundreds of miles north in the forst 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.

The sole issue to be determined in Weier’s trial next month is whether her mental condition at the time of the attack should make her legally responsible. If it’s determined she lacked the mental capacity to understand what she was doing, she could not seek conditional release from a state mental hospital until July 2020, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.

If the jury rejects the insanity defense, Weier is likely to spend 10 years in prison and 10 years’ extended probation under the agreement prosecutors reached.

Geyser, who has been diagnosed with early-onset schizophrenia, appeared in a separate status hearing in Waukesha County Circuit Court Monday. Her attorney, Anthony Cotton, said he’s still open to a possible plea deal, the Journal Sentinel reported.

“I really don’t think there's a whole lot we’re fighting over in this case,” he said.

The bizarre, internationally sensational case is the topic of an HBO documentary, “Beware the Slenderman,” a cautionary story for parents on how easily their children can be drawn in by internet myths and lore.

Leutner’s family issued a statement to People magazine thanking prosecutors for their hard work.
“It has been more than three years since our daughter was brutally attacked by two classmates who premeditatedly and meticulously planned their assault in an attempt to kill our daughter,” the statement reads. “These three years have been very difficult both physically and emotionally for Payton and our family. Paramount in our decision to accept today’s plea agreement is that it provides closure without having to have Payton testify and be forced to relive this horrific incident.

“Though perhaps not to the extent in which we would hope these assailants be punished, we are forced to work within the confines of current law. Ultimately, our decision is what is best for our beautiful and amazingly brave daughter, Payton.”

Feature photo: Anissa Weier, 15, appears in court Monday, Feb. 20, 2017, in Waukesha, Wisconsin. (Michael Sears/Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel via AP, Pool)