A 15-year-old girl involved in the stabbing of a classmate to please the fictional Slender Man was sentenced on Thursday, the Chicago Tribune reports, and is expected to serve the maximum requested sentence of 40 years by prosecutors.
Morgan Geyser was 12-years-old at the time when she and Anissa Weier attacked Payton Leutner in the woods of suburban Milwaukee in 2014, according to the Chicago Tribune. Geyser stabbed Leutner with a kitchen knife 19 times before leaving her for dead, but Leutner was able to crawl out of the park and get help. According to USA Today, the girls told police they had planned the crime to appease Slender Man and then walk to his mansion in northern Wisconsin.
Prior to her sentencing Geyser tearfully spoke to court about the crime, per CBS News: “I just want to let [Payton] and her family know I’m sorry. I never meant this to happen. And I hope that she’s doing well.”
Weier pleaded guilty last August and was sentenced to 25 years in a mental hospital. While Geyser also pleaded guilty, her sentencing was still up in the air, according to the Chicago Tribune. Geyser’s attorneys have argued that she deals with schizophrenia and psychotic spectrum disorder, which then makes her prone to delusions.
Judge Michael Bohren, who was presiding over the case, said that Geyser, 15, is still at risk to hurt herself or other people and noted that “what [the court] can’t forget is this was an attempted murder.”
USA Today reported earlier on Thursday that Geyser’s attorneys would try to convince a judge that her mental health treatment should be continued at home or at least another secure residence nearby. However, as CBS reported, doctors testifying about Geyser’s mental health said that she was still claiming to hear voices from a someone named “Maggie” in September of 2017.
While it was proven that Geyser is not criminally responsible for her act, prosecutors still want her to be held at the secure mental hospital she has been in for more than a year. USA Today reports that a person who is committed to custody of the Department of Health Services does not necessarily have to live in a mental health institute.