Des Moines teen Pieper Lewis, who killed alleged rapist, gets probation, deferred judgment
Philip JoensIn what the judge described Tuesday as a “second chance,” a Des Moines teen who pleaded guilty in the fatal stabbing of her alleged rapist will not go to prison, and could escape having a felony record.
Pieper Lewis received five years' probation and a deferred judgment, a type of legal remedy where a person's record can be expunged before completion of the sentence.
Polk County District Judge David M. Porter ordered her to also serve 1,200 hours of community service, which will cover more than $4,000 in fines.
In addition, she must stay at the Fresh Start Women's Center while she is on probation, will be subject to GPS tracking and will have to provide $150,000 in compensation for the death of her victim, Zachary Brooks.
“Well, Ms. Lewis, this was the second chance you asked for. You don’t get a third. Do you understand that?” Porter asked Lewis.
Before her sentencing, Lewis gave a statement, saying she, too, was a victim.
"I wish that never happened,” Lewis, who was 15 and homeless at the time, said of the June 1, 2020, killing. “But to say there’s only one victim in the story is absurd.”
Now 17, Lewis pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and willful injury in June 2021. Held at the Polk County Juvenile Detention Center since her arrest the day after the killing, she could have received up to 10 years on each count.
Prosecutors, however, recommended probation, and Lewis' attorneys asked for the deferred judgment.
Brooks, 37, of Des Moines, allegedly raped Lewis five times in the weeks before she killed him. Lewis said in her plea agreement she stabbed him 30 times with a knife she found on his nightstand the morning after he raped her yet again.
Her attorneys argued that Lewis was a sex trafficking victim manipulated by a 28-year-old man she lived with at the time.
Lewis wants to be a juvenile justice advocate: 'My story can change things'
In the lengthy sentencing hearing, which began Sept. 7 and resumed Tuesday, Lewis told Porter she never intended to kill someone, but that she felt unsafe in the aftermath of the rape.
She said she did not fear the prospect of going to prison, and that she will go on to be a fashion designer and open a business called Pie.
She also said she will become a juvenile justice advocate.
"My story can change things. My story has changed me," Lewis said. "The events that took place on that horrific day cannot be changed, as much as I wish I could. That day a combination of complicated actions took place resulting in the death of a person, as well as a stolen innocence of a child."
"You have a story to tell," Porter told her. "If you're willing to tell that story in front of me and the members here in this courtroom, you should be willing and be able to tell that story to other young and vulnerable women in our community."
Day 1 of sentencing hearing:Should Iowa sex trafficking victim who killed her alleged rapist go to prison, foster care or be released?
Lewis initially was charged with first-degree murder. But prosecutors never disputed the claim that she had been sexually assaulted or that she was a victim of sex trafficking. The Des Moines Register is not naming the man who allegedly trafficked Lewis because he has not been charged with a crime.
Asked in August if other charges could be filed, Polk County Attorney John Sarcone said only that "law enforcement continues to actively investigate all aspects of this matter."
Tension at home leads to homelessness at age 15
Billy and Leslie Lewis adopted Pieper Lewis out of foster care at age 3. Until they divorced when she was in eighth grade, Pieper Lewis had a typical childhood, neurologist Robert Kinscherff, who evaluated her after the killing, said in juvenile court last summer.
Lewis told the Register in response to written questions that after the divorce, her adoptive mother became "mentally and emotionally abusive." From January through March 2020 she ran away three times, according to her plea agreement, and was sexually assaulted at the Youth Emergency Services & Shelter facility in Des Moines the second time she ran away. She ran away again after her mother accused her of being promiscuous, according to her attorneys.
Lewis went to live with an older sister of a Lincoln High School classmate at the Oakview Terrace Apartment Complex, but moved out after an argument, sleeping in the hallways. A 40-year-old man in the complex took in Lewis, then 15, but beat her, gave her cocaine and tried to make her have sex with his cousins, according to her attorneys.
Lewis then returned to sleeping in the hallways, where she met the 28-year-old man, a small-time musician.
Who was Zachary Brooks and how did he die?
Brooks grew up in Des Moines and attended Des Moines Public Schools before getting his GED. A father of three children, he worked as a bus driver in Ankeny, then at a transit company in Fort Dodge. Six weeks before his death, he moved back to Des Moines.
Brooks' brother, Deondre Calaway, described Brooks as a loving father and proud dog owner. Calaway told the Register he saw Lewis at Brooks' apartment once; Brooks told him she was over 18, he said.
Lewis initially met Brooks at a party at a house near Weeks Middle School, she told Des Moines police detectives. The musician first sent Lewis to stay with Brooks sometime in May 2020, according to her plea agreement. Brooks gave her alcohol and marijuana, she became intoxicated, and he had sex with her five times while she was unconscious over the weekend, she said in her plea.
Iowa's age for sexual consent is 16, though teens ages 14 and 15 can consent with people who are no more than 48 months older than them, according to Iowa law.
"I did not want to have sex with Mr. Brooks," Lewis said in her plea. "I did not want to go to Mr. Brooks' apartment, but I had no other place to go."
The day before the killing, on May 31, 2020, the musician threatened her at knifepoint to force her to go to Brooks' apartment again, according to the agreement. It said Brooks picked Lewis up at the musician's apartment at 10 p.m. and planned to give him $50 worth of marijuana in exchange for her performing sex acts, her attorneys wrote.
Once Lewis got to Brooks' apartment, he ordered her to take her clothes off, according to her plea. Brooks and two other people pressured her into drinking vodka and smoking marijuana while they watched a movie, according to a search warrant.
“My initial thought was that Mr. Brooks was drunk and would likely fall asleep while watching the movie,” Lewis wrote in her plea. “I thought that this was the only way to stop him from having sex with me.”
But Lewis fell asleep first. When she woke up, Brooks was raping her, she said in court documents. She screamed for him to get off her, but couldn't stop him, she said.
Afterward, she gathered her clothes while Brooks slept, she said in her plea. She said that's when she saw the knife on the nearby nightstand and snapped.
“I suddenly realized that Mr. Brooks had raped me yet again and (I) was overcome with rage,” Lewis wrote in her plea.
After the killing, Lewis said, she fled from Brooks' apartment in his Dodge Charger and ended up back at the musician's apartment. A maintenance man found Brooks’ body that evening. Police arrested Lewis at the musician's apartment the next day.
Lewis' case is 'perfect example' of the control used by human traffickers
Patrick Waymire, Iowa Department of Public Safety intelligence director, told the Register last year the relationship Lewis described with the musician is a "perfect example" of human trafficking.
"It's a perfect example of control," said Waymire, who was not involved in the investigation of the killing. "That's a way people control somebody else."
Lewis said in her plea that she considered the musician her boyfriend. Traffickers make victims feel like they're part of their family so they will never leave, Waymire said.
Victims often do not realize they are victims, said Gretchen Brown-Waech, victim rights and human trafficking coordinator in the Iowa Attorney General's Office.
"Force is what people think of. That's not very common," Brown-Waech said. "Fraud is slightly more common and easier to prove. Coercion is the one that's most common, least understood and least proven."
Under federal and state law, anyone under age 18 who commits a commercial sex act is a trafficking victim, Brown-Waech said.
“It does not require proof of force, fraud or coercion,” she said.
What's next for Pieper Lewis?
Kinscherff, the neurologist, testified Wednesday that Lewis had committed a "major offense." Viewing her entirely as a victim can be helpful in addressing her current needs, but she also needs to be taught accountability so she does not stumble back into the life that led to her involvement in sex trafficking and Brooks' death, he said.
Lewis needs continued counseling to assist her adjustment to the adult world and therapies to manage her anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, Kinscherff said. She needs to be placed in programs that teach her accountability and to help her understand how she made decisions that led to her becoming "vulnerable to exploitation by other persons," he said.
A presentence report recommended prison time for Lewis. Porter said testimony from Kinscherff and Lewis' therapist, Megan Hoxhalli, influenced his decision to send Lewis to the Fresh Start Women's Center.
"Until you reach the age of 25, your life will be highly structured," Porter said. "Particularly for the next three years."
After the decision, Lewis' attorneys said they were stunned. Sheeley and his colleagues Paul White and Magdalena Reese said in July 2021, after arguing that Lewis should get a deferred judgment, that they thought she would likely face prison time.
"I assumed the worst," Sheeley said Tuesday. "As attorneys we always want the best for our clients, but as attorneys you're always prepared for the worst-case scenario."
Iowa law requires people convicted of homicides to pay $150,000 in compensation, but Sheeley argued to Porter that Brooks' rape of Lewis made him more than 51% responsible for his own death.
Porter rejected this argument and ordered Lewis to pay $150,000 to Brooks' estate.
Sheeley said Lewis' attorneys may appeal or may look for other legal means, such as fundraising, to help Lewis cover the sum.
She will have limited contact with her siblings for the next several years, until they turn age 18. But Fresh Start can provide her with a support network, White, Sheeley and Reese said.
"The world has been hard to Pieper," Reese said. "Instead of being hard, she made the conscious choice to be soft and to make her story make a difference in her life and the lives of others. Instead of turning silent and being hateful, she turned it around."
Philip Joens covers public safety, city government and RAGBRAI for the Des Moines Register. He can be reached at 515-443-3347 at pjoens@registermedia.com or on Twitter @Philip_Joens.