A judge only has to determine if there is simple probable cause that Morgan Geyser and Anissa Weier committed attempted first-degree intentional homicide for the Slender Man stabbing case to move forward in the adult court system.
Through various forms, including by bringing in officers and detectives who have worked on the case, the state showed during a daylong preliminary hearing on Monday at the Waukesha County Courthouse for both girls why they feel probable cause exists.
However, Geyser's attorney, Anthony Cotton, says "mitigating circumstances" exist in his 12-year-old client's case in which the suspects are charged with attempting to stab a middle school classmate to death.
Cotton said because of Geyser's belief in Slender Man, an Internet horror character, and what she believed would happen to her and her family by Slender Man if she didn't kill her friend — Payton "Bella" Leutner — that the charge of attempted first-degree intentional homicide should be dismissed.
"The only plausible account that Morgan stabbed Payton is because she believed in Slender Man and feared that he would harm her family if she didn't," Cotton said in court Monday during the first-part of Geyser's and Weier's preliminary hearing. "I think the reason the crime occurred is because of Slender Man."
Fighting the charge, Cotton is arguing that attempted second-degree intentional homicide exists. If a judge agrees, the charge would be dismissed and the prosecutors would have to file in juvenile court.
If that were to happen, the state could challenge to have the case waived back into adult court or prosecute the defendants in juvenile court.
Defense's turn
Cotton said he will likely present a few witnesses such as his private investigator and a deputy from the Washington County Sheriff's Department (Geyser was held there for a couple months after being arrested) on Tuesday — the second day of the two-day preliminary hearing.
If the court, however, decides that Geyser and Weier committed the offense they are charged with — attempted first-degree intentional homicide — the court would bind Geyser and Weier over for trial.
However, their attorneys have already indicated they would then request for a reverse waiver hearing, a separate hearing where they would attempt to have the case moved into juvenile court. The girls could be held in the juvenile system until they are 25 years old, while they face up to 65 years in prison if they are found guilty in the adult system.
A judge could make a decision after hearing from all of the defense's witnesses on Tuesday, but prosecutors requested for the judge to review the hours-long interviews Geyser and Weier conducted with police detectives the day of the crime.
"The court has to make independent findings (on the girls), but I think the same argument (of the second-degree offense) exists for both girls," said Cotton, who focused in many of his statements Monday on the fact that Leutner and Geyser were close friends and that his client had never hurt the victim before.
Taking the stand
The state brought four police personnel — all of whom had interacted in some capacity with the suspects and victim in the case — to the stand Monday. These detectives and officers were the ones listed in the criminal complaint, much of which was detailed in court on Monday.
It was the first time since the attack on May 31, 2014, that details of the crime have been discussed in court. With the girls' competency the focal point until now, the preliminary hearing had been on hold.
Geyser and Weier told police in interviews that they plotted for months to kill Leutner during a birthday party sleepover held at Geyser's house last May to gain favor with Slender Man.
The plan changed a couple times that night (initially police said the suspects told them they planned on killing Leutner in her sleep) and the day of (the girls looked at killing Leutner in the David's Park bathroom), but ultimately looked at executing the plan in a wooded area just outside the park. They looked at carrying out the plan while playing a game of hide-and-seek.
Shelly Fisher, a detective with the Waukesha Police Department who interviewed Leutner at the hospital on June 6, told her that Geyser is the one who stabbed her and before stabbing her she came real close to her and whispered in her ear "I'm so sorry."
Leutner then told Fisher that "it" then started, referring to the stabbing.
"It was too hard for her to say (stabbing), because it was too sad," said Fisher, who added Leutner eventually used the word stabbing and motioned Geyser's actions. Fisher also said that Leutner said Geyser did this to her "in order to save (Payton's) own life."
Detective Tom Casey of the Waukesha Police Department, who interviewed Geyser in the moments after she was arrested last year, said a search warrant on the Geyser home computer showed that there was a search "on how to get away with murdering someone," research on medicine and first aid as well as research on capital punishment.
"That was the main one that caught my eye," Casey said of the capital punishment search.
Laying blame
Casey also said that Geyser continued to put most of the blame on Weier and said they both stabbed Leutner. Geyser also continued to tell Casey "it was necessary" to go through with the act because Weier said so.
"She tried to put most of the blame on Anissa, but she appeared to be more responsible," Casey said.
Casey reiterated what he noted in the criminal complaint in that Geyser showed "absolutely" no remorse for her actions.
"There was no emotion from her at all," Casey recalled from his interview with Geyser.
On the other hand, an interview of Weier on a video projector in court showed her tear up when asked questions by Waukesha Police Department detective Michelle Trussoni, which also took place after police arrested her and Geyser a few hours after the attack.
Weier told Trussoni that Geyser was the one who stabbed Leutner and Weier's attorney, Joseph Smith Jr., spent much of the day arguing that Geyser was the ringleader in the attack.
But Weier, too, believed that Slender Man would harm her family if she and Geyser didn't kill someone.
"I was really scared knowing Slender Man could kill my family within three seconds," Weier said in her interview with Trussoni.
Notebook findings
Cotton on Monday used a notebook found inside Geyser's school locker at Horning Middle School as evidence of her fixation with Slender Man. Found throughout the notebook were images of Slender Man and references to the character as well as other characters depicted from the Creepypasta Wiki website, the site where the girls learned about Slender Man.
Geyser and Weier were allowed to take notes during the hearing as a way to gain a better understanding of the court system. Asked how Geyser is doing and if she understands what was going on Monday, Cotton said "it's tough to say. She did a lot of scribbling. There's a lot of scribbling."
Cotton said Geyser scribbles "a lot of nonsense" on the paper the court provides her.
Cotton said in December after his client was found competent that Geyser has been diagnosed with schizophrenia.
Leutner's parents — Stacie and Joe who shared their daughter's story on ABC's 20/20 last fall — were in court on Monday. It was the first time the victim's parents were in court for the legal proceedings. Sitting just across the aisle were the parents of Geyser and Weier, who have been present for all of their daughters' hearings.
Leutner, who survived the attack but came within a millimeter of death due to one of the 19 stab wounds, has returned to school and just celebrated her 13th birthday on Friday, Feb. 13.
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