Pieper Lewis at her trial in 2021. (WHO)
A 19-year-old woman on probation for killing a man who allegedly raped her several times in Iowa has absconded from her parole in Georgia, authorities say.
Pieper Delaney Lewis in 2021 pleaded guilty to one count each of voluntary manslaughter and willful injury for the June 2020 slaying of 37-year-old Zachary Brooks, whom she claimed sexually assaulted her on numerous occasions. She was 15 at the time she killed Brooks. Polk County District Judge David M. Porter handed down a deferred judgment to Lewis requiring her to serve five years of probation, complete 200 hours of community service, and pay $150,000 in restitution to Brooks’ family.
According to a probation violation report reviewed by Law&Crime, Lewis’ bond was revoked after she cut off her GPS monitoring device and escaped from an Iowa women’s residential facility in November 2022. After being caught, a judge ordered in May 2023 that she be housed at an Iowa Department of Corrections-approved facility once a spot became available. One such facility in Atlanta opened and DOC officials transported Lewis there in November 2023.
But Lewis became a problem almost immediately, officials said. She smuggled in a phone, left the facility without permission and skipped a doctor’s appointment for a rendezvous with a man, the report stated. Lewis was reportedly kicked out of the facility in March 2024. After her removal, she was taken to the Fulton County Parole Office to be fitted for a GPS device. She later told her parole officer that she could not find a place to live and was homeless. Lewis also allegedly was not charging her GPS device which was last working on April 6, the report said. Parole officers said they hadn’t heard from her since then.
“Due to the defendant’s continued non-compliant history, whereabouts being unknown, and this being an Interstate Compact Case, the Fifth DOC is requesting a nationwide warrant be issued on this matter,” the report said.
The parole officers requested that probation be revoked and the prison sentence be imposed. The deferred judgment meant that the charges could be expunged from Lewis’ record following the completion of her sentence. She faces a maximum sentence of up to 20 years in prison.
This isn’t the first time she fled. According to another probation violation report submitted in Polk County District Court, Lewis at approximately 6:19 a.m. on Nov. 4, 2022, escaped from the Fresh Start Women’s Facility in Des Moines.
“At approximately 6:19 AM the alarms sounded, notifying Residential Officer (RO) staff that a door had been opened. RO Porter then observed Client Lewis exiting the facility through the A-Wing door,” the report states. “On or about November 4, 2022 the Defendant cut off her GPS unit and went on the run from FSWC.”
As previously reported by Law&Crime, Judge Porter at Lewis’ sentencing hearing emphasized that he was concerned that the teen often failed to follow the rules while she was in criminal detention.
“This is the second chance that you’ve asked for,” he reportedly told her. “You don’t get a third.”
In her original plea agreement, Lewis reportedly said she ran away from home to get away from an unstable home life. She lived with a series of people until landing with a man who allegedly forced her to engage in sex acts with other men for pay, even signing her up on dating websites. This reportedly went on for approximately three or four months.
One of those other men was allegedly Brooks. He pumped her full of drugs and alcohol before raping her multiple times, Lewis alleged. When she realized what had happened, she said that she stabbed him to death.
Lewis said she had believed the man who forced her to have sex with other people was her boyfriend. Before that final visit to Brooks’ apartment, however, that “boyfriend” put a knife to her neck and cut her because she refused to go to Brooks’ home to pick up marijuana and be subjected to sexual abuse.
In describing the stabbing, Lewis said she planned on escaping Brooks’ home “at first light” if he passed out intoxicated, but instead, he plied her with vodka and marijuana, she said. She fell asleep and woke up to find him raping her, she said, according to the New York Times. Lewis said she lost consciousness.
She later “saw a box of KY Jelly and a knife with a black sheath lying on one of his night stands next to his bed.” He was “lying in his bed passed out,” she said.
“Without thinking, I immediately grabbed the knife from his night stand and began stabbing him,” Lewis continued.
Authorities did not dispute her abuse claims, but prosecutors said Brooks was sleeping when Lewis stabbed him more than 30 times, arguing that he did not impose an imminent threat to her safety.
The man who allegedly trafficked Lewis has not been charged.
Alberto Luperon and Jerry Lambe contributed to this report.
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