Jan. 8 (UPI) -- One of the girls involved in a 2014 attack inspired by the Internet phenomenon Slender Man is appealing her conviction because she was barely 12 years old and had a mental disorder when she stabbed her classmate 19 times.
Morgan Geyser, now 16 years old, has been diagnosed with schizophrenia and previously pleaded guilty to attempted first-degree homicide in connection with the 2014 attack in a Wisconsin park. Geyser was celebrating her 12th birthday when she and a friend, Anissa Weier, now 17, lured Payton Leutner to a forest where they attacked her. The girls believed they had to kill their friend or the fictional horror character known as Slender Man would kill their families.
"Geyser believed that if she did not do what Slender Man wanted -- namely to kill to become his proxy -- he would, in turn, kill her or her family," the appeal in Waukesha County Circuit Court read. "If she displeased him, he could kill her and her family almost instantaneously; he could kill you in as little as three seconds."
Leutner managed to crawl to a trail where she was discovered by a cyclist. She survived the attack after multiple surgeries.
Geyser shouldn't have been prosecuted as an adult because she was too young and had a mental disorder, her attorney Matthew Pinix said in the appeal. She should have been charged with second-degree intentional homicide and had her case tried in juvenile court.
He cites the girls' intention to find the Slender Man's mansion after attacking Leutner.
"Their plan - which underscored the severity of Geyser's mental illness - was to hike more than 300 miles to the Nicolet National Forest to find Slender Man and join him in his mansion," Pinix writes. "The two girls did not know precisely where they would find the mansion, but the finer points of their plan became irrelevant when sheriff's deputies found them hiding in some tall grass near the freeway and arrested them."
After her arrest, Geyser confessed to police without a lawyer or parents present. Suspects must be warned of their rights after they are arrested and have the right to an attorney. A suspect can waive those rights but Pinix called it a "mockery" to suggest that a 12-year-old could meet that standard.
"It took three months of targeted education [after she was arrested and found incompetent] for Geyser to gain sufficient knowledge such that she understood the legal system and her constitutional rights, including her right to counsel," Pinix said in the appeal.
The state's response to the appeal is due in February.
