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(Des Moines, IA) -- After repeated probation violations, Pieper Lewis has been sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Lewis pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and willful injury in 2022 for the 2020 stabbing of Zachary Brooks, who she says raped her repeatedly. The 21-year-old, who was 15 at the time of the killing, was a runaway from her adoptive parents and was being sex-trafficked.
She was granted a deferred judgment and placed in a facility in Georgia. However, in March 2024 she was removed from the facility and vanished until she turned herself in to authorities in December 2025 in Des Moines.
Her attorneys faulted the Georgia facility for removing her with no resources and asked that she be discharged on probation.
The judge sentenced her to 20 years in prison, with credit for time served.