The second of two young Wisconsin girls accused of trying to kill a classmate to please horror character Slender Man has pleaded not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect to a charge of attempted homicide.
Fourteen-year-old Anissa Weier entered the plea during a 15-minute hearing in Waukesha County Circuit Court on Friday.
Judge Michael Bohren appointed two doctors to examine the girl, who sat silently during the proceedings, and ordered them to turn in a report on her mental status by October 6.
Weier and 14-year-old Morgan Geyser each face one count of first-degree attempted intentional homicide as adults for allegedly luring classmate Payton Leutner into a wooded area and repeatedly stabbing her in May 2014.
All three girls were 12 years old at the time.
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Anyone aged 10 or older who faces that charge in Wisconsin is automatically considered an adult. If convicted, each girl would face up to 40 years in prison and 20 years on extended supervision. Geyser pleaded not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect last month.
Weier's lawyer, Maura McMahon, said after the hearing that she was no longer trying to get the case moved to juvenile court, a fight that had been ongoing since Weier and Geyser were taken into custody.
Geyser's lawyer said last month he'd given up on moving her case after exhausting nearly all legal avenues.
In adult court the girls would be committed to a mental hospital indefinitely if defence lawyers and prosecutors agreed they suffered from a mental disease, McMahon said. If a dispute arose over their mental states, a hearing would ensue and a jury would ultimately make the decision.
Prosecutors allege the girls planned for months to kill Leutner, either to gain favour with Slender Man and earn positions as his servants or to avoid his wrath.
The girls lured Leutner to a park in Waukesha, a town west of Milwaukee, following a sleepover. Investigators say the girls stabbed Leutner 19 times before fleeing, and Leutner crawled to a road where a cyclist found her.
Weier and Geyser were captured on the outskirts of Waukesha. They said they were walking to a national forest in northern Wisconsin where they planned to join Slender Man at his mansion, investigators allege.
