Lawyers In Slender Man Case To File Arguments About Release

WAUKESHA, WI— One of the teens convicted of stabbing a classmate to please the fictional internet horror character Slender Man appeared in Waukesha County Circuit Court on Wednesday.

Anissa Weier, 19, was sentenced her to 25 years in a mental health institution, has asked Waukesha County Circuit Judge Michael Bohren for conditional release from the Winnebago Mental Health Institute in Oshkosh.

Three psychologists and psychiatrists evaluated Weier and filed sealed reports with the court.

The court is holding the matter over until June 11 to give time to prosecutors to prepare briefs. The court set a briefing schedule: Brief due by the state on March 26, response due April 9, and reply due April 16, according to online court records.

Weier will be returned to the Winnebago Mental Health Institution until her conditional-release hearing, online court records said.

Weier has spent more than three years at the Winnebago Mental Health Institute in Oshkosh after pleading guilty to attempted second-degree intentional homicide. A jury found her not criminally responsible due to a mental disease in the stabbing that nearly killed Payton Leutner.Weier and Morgan Geyser lured their friend into woods at a Waukesha park in 2014 following a sleepover. Geyser stabbed Leutner 19 times, as Weier encouraged her, leaving the girl to die. All three girls were 12 at the time.

They told investigators they committed the crime to appease Slender Man.

Weier received the maximum sentence in December 2017 after more than three years of mental evaluations and failed attempts to get the case moved to juvenile court. Judge Michael Bohren will determine whether Weier still poses "a significant risk" of bodily harm to herself or others or of seriously damaging property if conditionally released, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.

If Borhen orders her release, she would be assigned state Department of Health Services case managers to track her progress until she's 37 years old, the length of her commitment. Weier can petition for conditional release every six months.

Geyser is serving a maximum 40-year sentence at a mental health facility.

Writing and reporting from the Associated Press was used for this report.