DES MOINES, Iowa — An Iowa sex trafficking victim sentenced to probation after killing a man she said raped her escaped from a women’s center on Friday, authorities said.
Pieper Lewis, 18, pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and willful injury after killing Zachary Brooks, 37, of Des Moines, in June 2020, the Des Moines Register reported.
On Sept. 13, Lewis was given a deferred judgment and was ordered to spend five years on probation at the Fresh Start Women’s Center in Des Moines, according to the newspaper.
Jerry Evans, executive director of the 5th Judicial District Department of Corrections, confirmed to KCCI that Lewis escaped custody at 6:19 a.m. on Friday. Evans said Lewis cut off her GPS tracker but was unsure where she was headed.
A warrant was issued for Lewis’ arrest and the probation report asked for her deferred judgment to be revoked, according to the television station. Lewis could face up to 20 years in prison, according to The Associated Press.
According to court testimony, Lewis was a runaway at age 15 who was taken in by a man who eventually trafficked her to other men for sex.
[ Trafficked teen who killed abuser, gets probation, ordered to pay his family restitution ]
Lewis claimed that Brooks was one of those men. She accused him of raping her repeatedly over several weeks.
On the day Brooks was killed, Lewis said Brooks had raped her again and that she grabbed a knife on the bedside table and stabbed him 30 times.
A judge ordered Lewis to serve 1,200 hours of community service, which would cover more than $4,000 in fines, the Register reported. Iowa law also required Lewis to pay $150,000 in compensation to Brooks’ family.
A GoFundMe page raised more than $560,000 to cover the restitution and pay for other needs, according to the newspaper.
According to a probation report, Lewis received citations for either failing to take a direct bus route home or for getting an unapproved private ride, the Register reported.
When Lewis failed to report back to the facility on Oct. 16, officers found her outside Broadlawns Medical Center in Des Moines, according to the newspaper.
She later admitted to having contact with someone she dated while she was in high school. Officers then prohibited Lewis from having any further contact with that person, the Register reported.
If Lewis had successfully completed her supervised probation, her prison sentence would have been expunged, KCCI reported.