Morgan Geyser Pleads Not Guilty In Slender Man Case On Insanity Grounds

Morgan Geyser, 14, one of the girls who was accused of stabbing classmate Payton Leutner to please online horror character Slender Man in May 2014, has pleaded not guilty in a U.S. court on the grounds of mental illness, according to reports on Saturday.

Morgan Geyser Pleads Not Guilty In Slender Man Case

Geyser and Anissa Weier, who pled not guilty last year, are being tried as adults, charged with attempted murder.

A judge in Wisconsin has reportedly appointed two doctors to evaluate Geyser.

Geyser’s attorney Tony Cotton told the Wisconsin State Journal that he “felt the facts of the case fit a mental illness plea.” The Journal also added that experts have testified that Geyser “suffers from schizophrenia and oppositional defiant disorder and maintains relationships with imaginary characters.”

Leutner was allegedly stabbed 19 times by Geyser and Weier while at a sleepover for Geyser’s birthday. She was found crawling from the woods by a cyclist near Geyser’s home in Waukesha, Wisconsin, and suffered injuries to her arms, leg and torso — but survived.

At the time of the girls’ arrest Geyser told police that she was going to see Slenderman, a fictional horror character who supposedly lives in a mansion in Nicolet National Forest.

Following the attack, both suspects were found walking near a local highway, and a knife was found in one of their backpacks, police said.

Investigators claim the two girls had been plotting Leutner’s death for months in dedication to Slenderman — speaking of their desire to become paranormal “proxies” by killing to demonstrate their loyalty.

Slenderman is known as a skinny, shadowy figure, who appears in photos and drawings across the internet. The character has tentacles extending from his back or sometimes can be seen wearing black clothes and has a white face.

Geyser and Weier were reportedly inspired by the character after reading about him in a creepypasta, a short online story written to spook or shock the reader.

In July, an appeal court in Wisconsin confirmed an earlier decision by a lower court that it was reasonable to try both girls as adults because the crime was planned and violent.

The next court hearing is scheduled for October.