Teenage sex trafficking victim is ordered to pay $150,000 to family of her accused rapist, during a sentencing hearing, Tuesday, in Des Moines, Iowa

Pieper Lewis was charged with killing Zachary Brooks in the early hours of June 1, 2020, by stabbing him 30 times when

She was 15 years old at the time

Lewis, now, 17, pled guilty last year to involuntary manslaughter and willful injury in the killing of 37-year-old Brooks

She was a runaway sleeping in hallways before the alleged rapist took her in

Officials said he forcibly trafficked her to other men for sex before she killed him

Lewis met the 40-year-old man while sleeping in corridors of buildings

He then created a dating profile for her to have sex with men in exchange for money

Later on, she met Brooks at a party and was forced to stay with him

Brooks allegedly plied the minor with alcohol and drugs before having sex with her multiple times, while she was unconscious

On May 31, 2020, the day before she committed the crime the defense said, the pimp held a knife to her and forced her to go to Brooks’ Des Moines apartment

‘I did not want to have sex with Mr. Brooks,’ Lewis wrote in a plea statement

Outraged public raises more than $260,000 to help homeless teen pay fine, within hours

A teenage human trafficking victim who at the age of 15, stabbed a John who raped her to death ,was sentenced Tuesday to five years of supervised probation and ordered to pay $150,000 to the man’s family.
Pieper Lewis, 17, was sentenced Wednesday in a Polk County courtroom after she pled last year to involuntary manslaughter and willful injury in the June 2020 killing of 37-year-old Zachary Brooks of Des Moines. Both charges were punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
Lewis also received five years of probation and a deferred judgment.
Polk County District Judge David M. Porter has deferred those prison sentences, meaning that if Lewis violates any portion of her probation, she could be sent to prison to serve that 20-year term.
However, her record could be expunged if she meets the conditions of her sentence.
Iowa requires those involved in a homicide to pay victims’ families $150,000 under state law. 
‘This court is presented with no other option,’ said Porter, noting that the law has been upheld by the Iowa Supreme Court.

Pieper Lewis was charged with killing Zachary Brooks in the early hours of June 1, 2020, when she was 15 years old.
Brooks, 37, of Des Moines allegedly raped her multiple times in the weeks before Lewis killed him following another alleged assault, according to court records.
The teen’s ‘broken relationship’ with the woman who adopted her out of foster care at the age of 3 prompted her to run away, she said – leading into the arms of an older man who initially posed as a benefactor before he started pimping her out.
Lewis was homeless when she met the 40-year-old man, while sleeping in corridors of buildings. He then created a dating profile for her to have sex with men in exchange for money, according to court documents. *Later on, she met Brooks at a party and was forced to stay with him. Brooks allegedly plied the minor with alcohol and drugs before having sex with her multiple times, while she was unconscious.

On May 31, 2020, the day before she committed the crime the defense said, the pimp held a knife to her and forced her to go to Brooks’ Des Moines apartment. 
‘I did not want to have sex with Mr. Brooks,’ Lewis wrote in a plea statement.
‘I did not want to go to Mr. Brooks’ apartment, but I had no other place to go.’
The court heard that Lewis’ relationship with the 40-year-old man who took her in was a ‘perfect example of human trafficking’.
‘There was very clearly a power dynamic between her and [her boyfriend] where he used her to get what he wanted,’ an Iowa Coalition Against Sexual Assault spokesperson previously told the Des Moines Register.
The victim has sat in a jail cell since her arrest and finished high school in July. 

The killing took place two years ago, at 1516 Evergreen Ave, in a Des Moines, Iowa after Lewis claims she was forced to have sex with Brooks.
Lewis said she was forced to go to Brooks’ house the day before she killed him.
She said an older man held a knife to her throat and forced her to sleep with other men.
Brooks’ body was found shortly after he was murdered. Prosecutors have argued that Brooks was asleep at the time he was stabbed and not an immediate danger to Lewis.
Police and prosecutors have not disputed that Lewis was sexually assaulted and trafficked. 
But prosecutors have argued that Brooks was asleep at the time he was stabbed and not an immediate danger to Lewis.

Iowa is not among the dozens of states that have a so-called safe harbor law that gives trafficking victims at least some level of criminal immunity.
However, Lewis’ attorneys requested for the state law to be disregarded since the then 15-year-old was a victim of a crime. 
Lewis has embraced self-development since her two-year ordeal began, including earning her GED while being held in juvenile detention.

Locuting before her sentencing, she acknowledged that she struggled with the strictures of her detention, asking ‘why I was treated like fragile glass’ and adding that she wasn’t allowed to communicate with her friends or family.
‘My spirit has been burned, but still glows through the flames,’ she read from a statement she had prepared. ‘Hear me roar, see me glow, and watch me grow.’
‘I am a survivor,’ she added.

Lewis agreed to have her name used previously in stories about her case.
Prosecutors took issue with Lewis calling herself a victim in the case and said she failed to take responsibility for stabbing Brooks and ‘leaving his kids without a father.’
The judge grilled Lewis with repeated requests to explain what poor choices she made that led up to Brooks’ stabbing and expressed concern that she sometimes did not want to follow rules set for her in juvenile lockup.
‘The next five years of your life will be full of rules you disagree with, I’m sure of it,’ Porter said. He later added: ‘This is the second chance that you’ve asked for. You don’t get a third.’

Prosecutors who argued that Lewis should call herself a victim in the case, said she failed to take responsibility for stabbing Brooks and ‘leaving his kids without a father’.
Iowa authorities were curious from the beginning about Lewis’ sexual relations with much older men, according to court records. The age for sexual consent in Iowa is 16. Teens ages 14 and 15 can consent with people within 48 months of their age, according to Iowa law. 
Iowa does have an affirmative defense law that gives some leeway to victims of crime if the victim committed the violation ‘under compulsion by another’s threat of serious injury, provided that the defendant reasonably believed that such injury was imminent.’
Prosecutors argued Tuesday that Lewis waived that affirmative defense when she pled guilty to manslaughter and willful injury. Under Iowa asked a Polk County judge to deny Brooks’ estate from the $150,000 because Lewis was an alleged sex trafficking victim. 
Her defense attorneys argued against the monetary restitution: “By subjecting the defendant to human trafficking and sexual abuse on June 1, 2020, the decedent was at least 51 percent at fault for his own damages,” the filing said.
“Such an award, as applied to this defendant and to these circumstances, would result in an excessive fine and cruel and unusual punishment.”
The sentence has brought a mix of astonishment and outrage by people supporting the homeless teen, as hundreds of thousands of dollars have poured into a fundraising site for a human trafficking victim convicted of killing the man she said repeatedly raped her.
While Lewis’ attorneys will discuss with her if they will appeal the order to pay $150,000, a GoFundMe fundraiser created to support 17-year-old Pieper Lewis had raised more than $260,000 from 6,353 donations as of Wednesday afternoon.