Juvenile court decision due in Slender Man stabbing case

Two Wisconsin teenagers will go to trial in adult court after being charged with stabbing their friend over a dozen times to please a fictional character named Slender Man.

Waukesha County Circuit Judge Michael Bohren is overseeing the cases.

They said the girls planned to stab the classmate during a sleepover but instead decided to commit the crime the next morning in a nearby park.

He said psychologists found both girls have a schizo disorder. One of them bounced in her chair until a bailiff whispered to her. She spent the rest of the hearing hunched over and glancing at the ceiling. He also said he anxious about the girls being released without proper supervision, citing protection of the community at large.

One of their attorneys, Maura McMahon, told reporters outside the courtroom that she was “of course” disappointed and her client didn’t understand what had happened.

“(The girl) is not the hardened, irascible offender who… needs to be taught a lesson through adult court placement”, her attorney, Anthony Cotton, wrote in court filings. The other defense attorneys and prosecutors departed without speaking to reporters.

Both girls were arrested the following day.

Should the Slender Man slayers be tried in adult court, they each face a charge of attempted first-degree homicide, which would hold a maximum of 65 years in prison if convicted.

The girls, who were 12 years old at the time, are accused of luring their classmate into the woods in Waukesha, Wisconsin, stabbing her, and then leaving her there. Payton was rushed to the hospital with life threatening injuries and survived. The girls also alleged that they feared for their own well beings, as well as those of their families, should they not kill Leutner, reportedly saying that Slender Man would come after them.

When asked to describe “Slender Man”, Morgan told the detective during an interrogation that he was “a tall, faceless man who preys on children”, according to an audio recording of the interrogation made public. They said they hoped to join Slender Man in his mansion in the Nicolet National Forest.