Why was she ordered to pay $150K to the attacker’s estate?

Donations are pouring in to help a 17-year-old sex trafficking victim who was ordered by a court to pay $150,000 to the family of a man she stabbed to death after he raped her.

A Gofundme campaign set up for Pieper Lewis has already raised more than $200,000 just one day after the restitution order was handed down by an Iowa judge.

Lewis also received a deferred 20-year prison sentence on Tuesday that will be expunged if she successfully completes five years of closely supervised probation. Prosecutors described the sentence as merciful for a teen who had been horribly abused — and the judge said the law compelled him to order the $150,000 payment — but it struck many observers as unnecessarily harsh.

Lewis pleaded guilty last year to involuntary manslaughter and willful injury in the June 2020 killing of 37-year-old Zachary Brooks, a married father of two. Lewis was 15 when she stabbed Brooks more than 30 times in a Des Moines apartment.

Lewis has maintained that she was trafficked against her will to Brooks for sex multiple times and stabbed him in a fit of rage. Police and prosecutors have not disputed that Lewis was sexually assaulted and trafficked.

The Associated Press does not typically name victims of sexual assault, but Lewis agreed to have her name used previously in stories about her case.

Here’s a look at how Lewis ended up facing criminal charges in an Iowa court and what’s next for her: donor offered words of encouragement or outrage over the teen’s prosecution — and sometimes both.

“Pieper, from one survivor to another, life gets better,” one $20 donor wrote. “I am disgusted you spent a second in jail, but don’t look back. Use whatever funds are left to move on and move up.”

Iowa law mandates that anyone convicted of a felony that leads to the death of another person must pay “at least” this much to the victim’s estate.

The payment cannot be discharged through bankruptcy, and it does not preclude a victim’s family from suing for more damages. But there is nothing in the law that would appear to bar someone from using donations to pay the restitution, said Grant Gangestad, a criminal defense attorney who helps lead the Iowa Association for Justice, a trade group for trial lawyers.

Lewis’ lawyers argued that as a victim of human trafficking and sexual abuse, she should be spared from making any payment at all.

They argued that Brooks was partially responsible for what happened and that such restitution would be cruel and unusual under the circumstances.

The judge rejected those arguments at Tuesday’s sentencing hearing, noting that the Iowa Supreme Court has upheld the state’s restitution law even in the face of some of those same arguments.

It is not clear whether Lewis’ lawyers will appeal; they said Wednesday they are still weighing their options.