Morgan Geyser Sentenced to 40 Years 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 was sentenced to the maximum sentence Thursday. Waukesha County Circuit Court Judge Michael Bohren ordered the 15-year-old Geyser to 40 years in a mental institution.

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.

Prosecutors initially wanted Geyser to serve the maximum 40 years in a mental institution for stabbing Payton Leutner in Waukesha County in 2014. Co-actor Anissa Weier was sentenced in December.

Live Streaming video (you may need to scroll ahead to view the latest footage)

Weier Sentenced in December

In December, a judge ordered Weier to serve up to 25 years in a mental institution with the possible release after three years. After a week-long trial in September, a jury determined that Weier, 16, was suffering from a mental illness when she stabbed 12-year-old Payton Leutner in May of 2014 to satisfy the fictional character Slender Man.

As a result of her sentencing, Weier will be committed to the Winnebago Mental Health Institute. In September, Waukesha County Circuit Judge Michael Bohren said she would have the ability to petition for her release after three years based on her plea agreement. If her release is granted, she would serve the remainder of her sentence on extended supervision.

12-Year-Olds Plotted Murder

The girls were identified in open court and the criminal complaint as Morgan E. Geyser and Anissa E. Weier, who were 12 years old at the time of the incident.

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

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
The girls were particularly 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."

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 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 last year, the appeals court said if the girls were found guilty in the juvenile system they would be released at age 18 with no supervision or mental health treatment.

In this Sept. 29, 2017 file photo, Morgan Geyser, one of two Wisconsin girls charged with stabbing a classmate, Payton Leutner, in 2014, to impress the fictitious horror character Slender Man, enters a Waukesha County Court for a status hearing in Waukesha, Wis. A judge in Waukesha County Circuit Court on Thursday, Dec. 21, 2017, is expected to send 16-year-old Anissa Weier to a facility for at least three years after she was previously found not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect. Geyser was also found not guilty by reason of mental disease and will be sentenced in Feb. 2018. (Michael Sears/Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel via AP, Pool, File)