Q&A: Next steps for Iowa teen sentenced for killing rapist
By MARGERY A. BECK and DAVID PITT
Associated Press
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Donations are pouring in to help a 17-year-old sex trafficking victim who was ordered by a court to pay $150,000 to the family of a man she stabbed to death after he raped her. A GoFundMe campaign set up for Pieper Lewis has already raised more than $200,000 just one day after the restitution order was handed down by an Iowa judge. Prosecutors described the sentence as merciful for a teen who had been horribly abused, but it struck some observers as unnecessarily harsh. Lewis pleaded guilty last year to involuntary manslaughter and willful injury in the June 2020 killing of 37-year-old Zachary Brooks, a married father of two.
