Slender Man: Both Stabbing Suspects Ruled Competent to Stand Trial
— -- Two Wisconsin girls who allegedly stabbed a friend over Slender Man were found competent today to stand trial.
A Wisconsin judge found 13-year-old Anissa Weier competent, while the second suspect, Morgan Geyser, waived her right to a hearing and was as a result ruled competent.
Testimony from three doctors who evaluated Weier -- one hired by the prosecution, the other two by her defense -- presented their findings before the judge.
The prosecution's doctor found her competent, while the defense's doctors found her incompetent.
When Weier herself was asked by Judge Michael Bohren if she considered herself competent, Weier said, "I consider myself incompetent, sir."
By stating such, under Wisconsin law, Weier set a very high burden of proof for the prosecution to clear and the judge ruled that they had met the burden.
Later in the day, a second hearing to determine Geyser's competency was waived by the teen's lawyers, agreeing with a doctor's opinion that she is competent. The judge agreed and as a result Geyser, 13, was ruled to be in fact competent.
According to investigators, Geyser and Weier from Waukesha, Wisconsin, decided they wanted to be with Slender Man, a fictional horror character born from a dark corner of the Internet.
In stories they read about him online, Slender Man kidnaps and kills children. Not only did the girls believe he was real, police said, they were convinced the only way to get in his good graces was to kill someone. But Slender Man isn’t real. And their friend, a girl named Payton Leutner, survived being stabbed last May with a large kitchen knife 19 times.
All three girls were 12 at the time.
