Stabbing gets teen 25 years in institution
MADISON, Wis. — One of two Wisconsin girls who tried to kill a classmate to win favor with a fictional horror character named Slender Man has been sentenced to 25 years in a mental hospital, the maximum punishment possible.
Anissa Weier, 16, pleaded guilty in August to being a party to attempted second-degree intentional homicide, but she claimed she wasn’t responsible because she was mentally ill. In September, a jury agreed.
Waukesha County Circuit Judge Michael Bohren on Thursday sentenced Weier to 25 years in a psychiatric institution, retroactive to the date of the crime. That means she would be institutionalized until age 37.
Weier and Morgan Geyser lured Payton Leutner into a wooded park in Waukesha, a Milwaukee suburb, in 2014. Geyser stabbed Leutner 19 times while Weier urged her on, according to investigators. Leutner survived after she crawled out of the woods to a path where a passing bicyclist found her.
Leutner family spokesman Steve Lyons said they were pleased with the sentence.
“They believe that justice was served,” Lyons said.
Weier’s attorney, Maura Mcmahon, argued that she should not be hospitalized beyond her 25th birthday.
In a deal with prosecutors, Geyser, who did the stabbing, pleaded guilty to attempted first-degree intentional homicide with the agreement that she isn’t criminally responsible and shouldn’t go to prison. She will be sentenced in February, and prosecutors have asked that she be given at least 40 years in a mental hospital.