Morgan Geyser Loses Slender Man Stabbing Appeal

WAUKESHA, WI — Morgan Geyser, one of two Wisconsin girls convicted with stabbing a classmate 19 times to satisfy the fictional horror character Slender Man lost her appeal on Wednesday.

On May 31, 2014, 12-year-old Morgan Geyser, with the aid of Anissa Weier, who was also 12, repeatedly stabbed their classmate Payton Leutner.

Geyser and Weier were charged in adult court with attempted first-degree intentional homicide, with the use of a dangerous weapon, as parties to the crime.

Despite the efforts of attorneys for Geyser and Weier to convince the court the charge should be reduced to attempted second-degree intentional homicide—resulting in a loss of exclusive original adult-court jurisdiction—the court found probable cause that both defendants committed attempted first-degree intentional homicide and bound them over for trial in adult court.

"In this appeal, Geyser claims the court erred in binding her over rather than discharging her from adult court", according to appeal court documents.

Wisconsin's 2nd District Court of Appeals found that Waukesha County Circuit Court accurately kept the case in adult court.

"On the first issue, we conclude the court did not err as it properly found probable cause that Geyser committed attempted first-degree intentional homicide," court documents said.

The 2nd District Appeals court previously affirmed a lower court's determination that it was reasonable to try both girls as adults. Citing an earlier ruling, the appeals court said if the girls were found guilty in the juvenile system they would be released at age 18 with no supervision or mental health treatment.

Geyser's attorney also argued to suppress a statement Geyser made to Waukesha Police Department Detective Thomas Casey following the attack.

According to the documents, Geyser "did not knowingly, intelligently, and voluntarily waive her Miranda rights prior to making the statement".

The appeals court documents said it didn't need to rule on if the lower court erred in allowing the statements to the authorities.

"We conclude that even if it did err, such error was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt due to the additional, unchallenged, and overwhelming evidence in this case," the court documents said.

Matthew S. Pinix, attorney for Geyser, released a statement to Patch.

"Morgan’s fight is not over. This case is definitely one that the Wisconsin Supreme Court should decide. The court of appeals dodged serious issues in the case and admittedly struggled with some of the areas of law. The court even went so far as to telegraph the need for the supreme court’s guidance. We will be asking the supreme court to take the case and put Wisconsin on the right track with juvenile defendants by admitting that Morgan’s statement should never have been used against her," Pinix said.

The girls were particularly fascinated with the story of Slender Man, a killer of children. According to the criminal complaint, the girls planned to kill their friend so they could be "proxies of Slender Man."

Sacrificing their friend ensured them special positions as "proxies" for Slender Man, a killer of children, police said, and the girls planned the attack for months. They planned to walk hundreds of miles north in the forest to meet Slender Man — a tall, thin, blank-faced figure in a black suit alternatively viewed as a force of evil or an avenging angel.

Weier and Geyser lured Leutner into a wooded area of a park in Waukesha, near Milwaukee. Geyser stabbed Leutner 19 times as Weier egged her on, investigators said. Leutner survived and crawled out of the woods to a path where she was found by a bicyclist.

In 2017, Geyser pleaded guilty in a deal that allowed her to avoid prison and instead receive mental health treatment.

In 2018, Geyser was sentenced to 40 years in a mental institution.

The same year a jury found Geyser's co-defendant, Anissa Weier, was mentally ill at the time of the attack on Leutner. A judge ordered Weier to serve up to 25 years in a mental institution with the possible release after three years.