Pieper Lewis: Sex trafficking victim who stabbed her rapist 30 times when she was 15 to be sentenced
DES MOINES, IOWA: A teenager will soon be sentenced after she pled guilty to murdering her alleged rapist. Pieper Lewis will reportedly appear at the Polk County Criminal Courthouse on Wednesday, September 7, after she reportedly stabbed 37-year-old Zachary Brooks 30 times at a Des Moines house on June 1, 2020.
The 17-year-old girl was just 15 at the time when Brooks reportedly sexually assulated her multiple times, leading to his killing. After her arrest on June 2 that year, Lewis asserted that Brooks' killing was not pre-planned and she acted in "rage." In her plea statement, she said, “I did not want to have sex with Mr. Brooks. I did not want to go to Mr. Brooks' apartment, but I had no other place to go.”
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As per reports, since her arrest, Lewis has been in a prison cell from where she also completed her schooling. A year after the incident, she decided to plead guilty to involuntary manslaughter and willful injury. Now if she’s convicted, she can face up to 10 years jail time on each charge, Des Moines Register reported.
The year when Lewis allegedly killed Brooks, she was homeless and used to sleep on the Oakview Terrace Apartment Complex's stairs. However, a 40-year-old man reportedly asked her to come to his house and forced her to sleep with different men, which the unidentified man has denied. The young woman labelled him as her "boyfriend."
Eventually at a party, the teen and Brooks met, and he apparently fed her liquor and drugs before raping her several times as she was not in her consious. According to Lewis, on May 31, 2020, her boyfriend went violent with her and asked her to go to Brooks’ place at 1516 Evergreen Ave. When she reached there, she was pressured to remove her dress and was also given alcohol and weed.
Lewis, in her plea, as reported by The Daily Mail, said, “My initial thought was that Mr. Brooks was drunk and would likely fall asleep while watching the movie. I thought that this was the only way to stop him from having sex with me.” However, she fell asleep only to wake up later and find Brooks on her. She reportedly requested him to stop but he refused. After his assault ended, Lewis took her clothes and got a knife from a bedside table before stabbing him numerous times. Brooks’ remains were discovered by a maintenance man.
The age of consent in Iowa is 16. As per the law, "Persons 14 and 15 years of age may consent to sex with a person within 48 months of their age. Persons less than 13 years of age cannot legally consent to sexual intercourse.” "Lewis' living-in with the 40-year-old man was a perfect example of human trafficking,” according to the prosecutor. An Iowa Coalition Against Sexual Assault spokesperson said, “There was very clearly a power dynamic between her and [her boyfriend] where he used her to get what he wanted.”
Earlier in November, Des Moines Police Sgt Paul Parizek had said, “With all criminal investigations, gathering the evidence necessary to support an accusation and to meet the standard to file criminal charges, can take some time.”
If you or anyone you know suspects child abuse, you are urged to immediately call the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-Child or 1-800-422-4453, or go to www.childhelp.org. All calls are toll-free and confidential and the hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages.