One of the girls convicted of stabbing a classmate to please the fictional horror character ‘Slender Man’ will appear in court next week, seeking a conditional release from a Wisconsin mental health facility.
According to court documents in Waukesha County, Anisa Weier, 19, will appear in court on March 10 as she seeks release from the Winnebago Mental Health Institute, where she has been treated since her Dec. 2017 sentencing in the case.
Weier, along with her friend Morgan Geyser, attacked their friend Payton Leutner in a Waukesha County park following a sleepover in 2014. Geyser stabbled Leutner 19 times, as Weier encouraged her, according to prosecutors.
All three of the girls were 12 at the time, according to court documents.
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After being left to die, Leutner ultimately survived the attack after a passing bicyclist found her, and she was rushed to a hospital for emergency surgery.
Weier pleaded guilty to second-degree attempted intentional homicide in connection with the case, and a jury found her not criminally responsible due to a mental disease. She was sentenced to 25 years in a mental health facility by Judge Michael Bohren.
Weier is eligible to apply for conditional release every six months, according to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel.
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Bohren will preside over the hearing, with mental health experts expected to testify. They will work to determine whether Weier poses a “significant risk” of bodily harm to herself or to others, and if the court finds that she does, she will be denied conditional release, according to the newspaper.
Geyser, who was sentenced to 40 years in a mental health facility, has not yet applied for conditional release, but has been the subject of several high-profile court battles, including over whether her testimony to detectives in the aftermath of the stabbing should have been admissible in court. Her lawyers had also argued that her case should have been tried in juvenile court, but were overruled due to the original charges of attempted first-degree intentional homicide.
