Slender Man Suspects Expected to Enter Pleas Friday

The two 13-year-olds accused of stabbing a classmate in Waukesha were arraigned Friday morning.

According to the Washington Post, they believed the tall, faceless “Slender Man” would reward them by letting them live in his mansion, which they though was in Nicolet National Forest in Wisconsin – 300 miles from their home.

The two young Wisconsin girls pleaded not guilty to first-degree attempted murder charges on Friday for allegedly stabbing their 12-year-old friend multiple times after being influenced by a dark fictional character named “Slender Man”.

The judge entered a not guilty plea on behalf of Morgan Geyser and Anissa Weier because the girls’ lawyer did not file paper work.

Weier and Geyser are charged as adults in the 2014 stabbing attack on a classmate at a sleepover party. All three girls were 12 at the time.

Payton was stabbed 19 times, and one wound narrowly missed a major artery near her heart. The victim survived the attack and returned to school last fall.

An attorney for one of the girls had objected to allowing the media to photograph her client’s face.

Defense attorneys have argued that the case belongs in juvenile court, saying the adolescents suffer from mental illnesses and won’t get appropriate treatment in the adult prison system. Attorneys for each girl said after the hearing that they believe the case should be tried in juvenile court.

Judge Michael Bohren decided previously that the case should be tried in adult court, and the 13-year-old girls face decades in prison if convicted.

The suburban Milwaukee teens are each charged with attempted first-degree intentional homicide.

The Associated Press is not identifying the girls because their case could land on appeal in juvenile court, where proceedings are closed.