Judge focuses on possible insanity plea in Waukesha stabbing
Two 12-year-old girls are charged with attempted first-degree intentional homicide for what police say was a plot, planned over months, to kill their classmate. Morgan Geyser and Anissa Weier reportedly stabbed their victim 19 times with a five-inch blade.
Waukesha — A judge on Wednesday ordered an examination of whether mental disease or defect will be an issue in trial for one of two 12-year-old girls charged with trying to kill a classmate in a bizarre quest to please a fantasy character named Slender Man.
At the hearing in Waukesha County Circuit Court, it was revealed that two doctors who have interviewed Morgan Geyser have concluded she is not legally competent to proceed with her trial.
Prosecutors then took the unusual step of asking to move forward now with a further examination over whether mental disease or defect could be her ultimate basis for a not guilty plea in the case.
Her attorney, Anthony Cotton, objected, saying no plea has been entered and no formal finding of probable cause to proceed to trial has been issued.
Nonetheless, Waukesha County Circuit Judge Michael Bohren ordered the examination.
Geyser's co-defendant, Anissa E. Weier, also appeared briefly Wednesday. Her defense attorney, public defender Joseph Smith, requested 30 days to examine discovery materials that prosecutors brought forward. Bohren set a status hearing for Aug. 1 for Weier and a competency hearing for Geyser also on Aug. 1.
Both girls appeared in court handcuffed in jail garb with their heads down.
Transfer is attorneys' goal
Wednesday's developments delayed a preliminary hearing in the case, during which more facts might emerge.
When juveniles are charged as adults, the preliminary hearing becomes a critical component of another hearing, called a reverse waiver, when attorneys for young defendants argue that the case should be tried in juvenile court.
Attorneys for both girls reiterated Wednesday that such a transfer is their goal in the case.
Geyser and Weier are charged as adults with attempted first-degree intentional homicide in a May 31 attack on a third girl in the woods near a Waukesha park the day after all three girls had a sleepover to celebrate Geyser's birthday.
All three attend Horning Middle School in Waukesha. The victim, who has not been identified publicly, suffered 19 stab wounds but has been released from the hospital and is recovering at home.
Geyser and Weier are being held at a secure juvenile center in West Bend.
The case has drawn international attention because of the girls' ages and because the defendants told police their motive in the attack was to gain favor with an Internet character named Slender Man, whom they believed lived in Nicolet National Forest in northern Wisconsin.
Victim recovering at home
Though she had been left to die, the victim managed to crawl out to a path in the park where a passing bicyclist found her and called 911. Geyser and Weier were picked up as they walked along a highway, headed, they told police, to meet up with Slender Man.
The victim's family released a statement on Wednesday in support of the Waukesha County district attorney's office's prosecution of the case.
"However, our daughter and our entire family continue to focus on both her physical and emotional healing," the statement read. "She continues to amaze us in her ability to persevere and move forward — taking one day at a time."
"Much of our strength comes from knowing that there is so much 'good' coming from so many people, and we continue to witness this firsthand from the compassion given to our little girl from around the world," it concluded.
The victim's family had asked supporters to send purple hearts, and thousands arrived from around the world. Others showed support through an online donation fund, with more than $53,000 collected as of Wednesday.
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