Pieper Lewis was seen walking out of the building at the Fresh Start Women’s Center in Des Moines just after 6:15 a.m. on Friday and sometime that day her GPS monitor was cut off, according to a surveillance breach report.
A warrant was issued for Lewis’ arrest and the probation report called for the deferred judgment to be revoked and her original sentence to be imposed, KCCI reported. He could face up to 20 years in prison.
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.
Lewis pleaded guilty last year to involuntary manslaughter and willful injury in the June 2020 slaying 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 said he trafficked Brooks against her will for sex multiple times and stabbed him in a fit of rage. Police and prosecutors did not dispute that Lewis was sexually assaulted and trafficked.
The Associated Press does not typically name victims of sexual harassment, but Lewis has agreed to have her name used in stories about her case in the past.
