Iowa Teen Killed Alleged Rapist

Pieper Lewis, 18, was booked into custody after she escaped to a women’s residential correctional center where she was serving probation after having pleaded guilty to killing a man, she said raped her. Lewis pleaded guilty last year to involuntary manslaughter and willful injury in the June 2020 killing of Zachary Brooks, 37, a married father of two. Lewis was 15 when she stabbed Brooks more than 30 times in a Des Moines apartment. Lewis has said that she was trafficked against her will to Brooks for sex multiple times and that she stabbed him in a fit of rage. Police and prosecutors did not dispute that Lewis was sexually assaulted and trafficked. Lewis was seen walking out of the Fresh Start Women’s Center in Des Moines, and at some point, that day her GPS monitor was cut off, according to a probation violation report. She was arrested in Des Moines by a Fifth Judicial Circuit task force, being charged in violation of her probation and escaping custody. More information about how she was found and retrieved from hiding is not immediately available. Prosecutors are now requesting a hearing to revoke her probation, which could require her to serve the full 20-year sentence, according to a probation violation report. Prosecutors came out to state that the probation sentence she was given in September was merciful for a teenager who endured horrible abuse, although some questioned the $150,000 restitution she was ordered to pay. A GoFundMe campaign raised over $560,000 to cover the restitution and pay for her other needs. Lewis scheduled court date is November 18th and plans to hire her attorney according to court documents.