Posted: 16:15, November 7, 2022 | Updated: 18:09, November 7, 2022
An 18-year-old sex-trafficking victim has been jailed for killing her rapist, cutting off her electronic monitoring device and escaping from the prison where she was serving her probation. Pieper Lewis left the Fresh Start Women’s Center in Des Moines, Iowa, around 6:15 a.m. on Friday, according to a probation violation report. A warrant was issued for her arrest, but as of Monday morning, the teenager’s whereabouts were still unknown. Hours after she broke out of the women’s correctional facility, the probation report called for the suspended sentence to be revoked and her original sentence to be imposed, KCCI Des Moines News reported. He could now face up to 20 years behind bars. Lewis stabbed to death Zachary Brooks, a married father of two, in a Des Moines apartment in June 2020. The teenager claimed that Brooks had trafficked her against her will and raped her multiple times. He said he killed him in a fit of rage. Police and prosecutors did not dispute that Lewis was sexually assaulted and trafficked. The teenager pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and willful injury and was granted a deferred judgment by Polk County Judge David Porter. Pieper Lewis, 18, gives her statement during a sentencing hearing, Tuesday, Sept. 13, 2022, in Des Moines, Iowa. Lewis pleaded guilty to murdering the man she said raped her. At around 6.15am on Friday, Lewis escaped from the Fresh Start Women’s Center where she was serving a suspended sentence Lewis was 15 when she stabbed to death Zachary Brooks, a married father of two (pictured), in a Des Moines apartment in June 2020 A warrant has been issued for Lewis’ arrest, but as of Monday morning the teenager’s whereabouts were still unknown In September, the judge ordered Lewis to pay $150,000 to the killer’s family in restitution, as required by Iowa law. According to the judge’s ruling, Lewis will also have five years of probation, serve 200 hours of community service and pay an additional $4,000 in civil penalties. Lewis first met Brooks when she was a runaway sleeping in the hallways before taking her in. The teenager’s broken relationship with the woman who adopted her out of foster care at age 3 prompted her to run away, Lewis said. Officials said Lewis was a runaway trying to escape an abusive adoptive mother and was sleeping in the hallways of an apartment building when an elderly man took her in before forcibly trafficking her to other men for sex. Prosecutors had described the suspended sentence she was given in September as lenient for a teenager who suffered horrific abuse, although some questioned the $150,000 in restitution she was ordered to pay. A GoFundMe campaign raised over $560,000 to cover rehabilitation and pay for her other needs. Polk County Circuit Judge David Porter told Lewis that the suspended sentence “was the second chance you asked for. You don’t get a third,” the Des Moines Register reported. If Lewis had successfully completed five years under close supervision, the prison sentence would have been removed. Brooks’ body was found shortly after he was killed. Prosecutors argued that Brooks was asleep when he was stabbed and did not pose an immediate danger to Lewis The murder took place at a home in Des Moines, Iowa located at 1516 Evergreen Ave, where Lewis was forced to have sex with Brooks.
