WAUKESHA, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — One of the women involved in the 2014 stabbing of a classmate in southern Wisconsin is once again seeking release from a psychiatric facility.
Morgan Geyser, now 21 years old, appeared Wednesday in Waukesha County Court to petition for conditional release. In 2018, she was sentenced to 40 years in the Winnebago Mental Health Institute after pleading guilty to attempted first-degree intentional homicide.
This is Geyser’s third filing for conditional release; her previous two petitions were ultimately withdrawn.
Three psychologists were ordered by Waukesha County Judge Michael Bohren to perform evaluations of Geyser, WITI reports. The hearing is expected to take two days.
Psychologist Deborah Collins provided testimony on the stand Wednesday. According to WITI, Collins said Geyser acknowledged she was sexually abused when she was 11 years old and started “as early as she started forming memories.” Collins added Geyser attempted suicide while in custody.
Collins told prosecutors she does not recommend Geyser’s petition for conditional release be granted, saying Geyser suffers from unspecified schizophrenia, post-traumatic stress and social anxiety disorder, WITI reports.
Two other psychiatrists are expected to testify at Thursday’s hearing.
Prosecutors said in May 2014, Geyser and her friend, Anissa Weier, lured their classmate, Payton Leutner, to a wooded park area in Waukesha during a sleepover, where Geyser stabbed Leutner 19 times while Weier urged her on.
Weier and Geyser claimed they attacked Leutner in order to appease Slender Man — a fictional horror character — and prevent him from killing their families. All three girls were 12 years old and in sixth grade at the time.
Despite being left for dead, Leutner managed to survive by crawling out of the woods, where she was discovered by a passing bicyclist. Geyser and Weier were both charged as adults.
Anissa Weier, now 21, pleaded guilty to attempted second-degree intentional homicide after the attack. She was also sent to the Winnebago Mental Health Institute in 2017, but was released in 2021. Last September, a judge amended the terms of Weier’s conditional release, freeing her to live with her father with no GPS monitoring.
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