Two Wisconsin girls accused of repeatedly stabbing a classmate to please an imaginary internet monster named Slender Man must stand trial as adults, a judge ruled on Friday.
Waukesha County Circuit judge Michael Bohren spent a month deliberating over the evidence provided during a two-day preliminary trial last month before deciding that the girls should be charged with attempted first-degree murder in adult court.
Under Wisconsin law, suspects at least 10 years of age must be charged as adults in severe crimes. Defense lawyers argued that the girls legitimately believed Slender Man was going to harm their families if they didn’t kill their classmate. As a result, they argued, the girls should instead be charged with attempted second-degree murder, which can be tried in juvenile court.
The girls and the victim were 12 when the incident took place last year. The suspects face up to 65 years in prison if convicted, the Associated Press reported. If they are tried in juvenile court and convicted, they can only be held there until they are 25.
Bohren granted requests by the girls’ attorneys for hearings to appeal the judge’s decision and have the cases moved back to juvenile court. Those hearings will be held in May and June, the AP reported.
Prosecutors argue that the girls plotted for months to kill Leutner, a classmate. In May, the girls convinced Leutner to come to their house for a sleepover. The next morning, the lured her into a forest in Wakuesha, a Milwaukee suburb, where they stabbed her 19 times before fleeing.
Police arrested the girls in June as they were attempting to walk to what they believed was Slender Man’s mansion in a Wisconsin state park. The victim, who survived her injuries, was eventually found by a bicyclist after she crawled from a wooded area, where she said she was stabbed by the two girls.
• This article was amended on 16 March 2015. An earlier version referred to charges of first-degree murder and second-degree murder. Those references have been corrected to attempted first-degree murder and attempted second-degree murder.
