Morgan Geyser (left) and Anissa Weier (right) will remain in adult court on charges they tried to fatally stab a classmate. The Court of Appeals rejected a bid to move the cases to juvenile court. Credit: Journal Sentinel files

SHARE Waukesha Stabbing

Two 12-year-old girls are charged with attempted first-degree intentional homicide for what police say was a plot, planned over months, to kill their classmate. Morgan Geyser and Anissa Weier reportedly stabbed their victim 19 times with a five-inch blade. Go to section

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Two Waukesha girls who were 12 when prosecutors say they tried to kill their sixth-grade classmate are properly charged as adults, the Court of Appeals ruled Wednesday.

The decision affirmed a trial judge's ruling last year that Morgan Geyser and Anissa Weier had failed to show, "by a preponderance of evidence," that they should be transferred from adult court to juvenile court.

That decision, according to the appeals court, was within the judge's discretion.

"We will not overturn a circuit court's discretionary determination if the record reflects that discretion was exercised; instead, we will seek out reasons to sustain the decision."

Angie Geyser said she was disappointed and noted the opinion misstates that her daughter, diagnosed with early onset schizophrenia, refuses medication. Morgan Geyser started medication after her civil commitment to a state mental hospital about seven months ago.

"She has developed insight into her illness and wants to continue on the path to recovery," Angie Geyser said. "Keeping her in the adult system, with the possibility of eventually ending up incarcerated in an adult prison, will do nothing but ensure that this does not happen."

The opinion was issued jointly by Court of Appeals Chief Judge Lisa Neubauer, and judges Paul Reilly and Brian Hagedorn, also of the District II court.

Geyser and Weier, who are now 14, were charged as adults in June 2014 with luring a classmate to the woods May 31, 2014, after a sleepover and stabbing her 19 times before leaving her for dead. The victim, Payton Leutner, managed to crawl near a path, where she was found by a passing bicyclist.

Both girls later told police they were trying to either impress or avoid the wrath of Slender Man, a fictional internet boogeyman the girls said they believed would harm them or their families if they didn't kill their friend. The crime made headlines around the world.

Defense attorneys tried to have the cases transferred to juvenile court, but Waukesha County Circuit Judge Michael Bohren denied their motions in August after lengthy hearings. Both girls appealed.

The appeals court found Bohren properly exercised his discretion when he "rationally considered the relevant testimony, applied the proper legal standard, and reached a conclusion that a reasonable judge could reach."

Bohren found that, despite evidence of the girls' nonviolent histories and psychological issues, having them prosecuted as juveniles would "unduly depreciate the seriousness of the offense," noting that they had discussed the crime for months beforehand, lied to the victim when they told her not to move and they would get help, and tried — however unlikely — to flee by starting to walk to northern Wisconsin.

If convicted of attempted first-degree intentional homicide as adults, the girls would face up to 45 years in prison. If adjudicated delinquent in juvenile court, they could be incarcerated three years then subjected to intensive community supervision and treatment until age 18.

That distinction also weighed heavily in Bohren's decision. He noted that if sentenced as adults, they could remain subject to monitoring for many years, even if not actually in prison.

Each has been held at a West Bend juvenile jail since their arrests May 31, 2014, except for stints at a state mental facility for competency examinations and restoration, and, in the case of Geyser, treatment for early onset schizophrenia, under a civil commitment order.

Three-part test

During separate hearings in May and June 2015, lawyers for Weier and Geyser tried to convince Bohren of three points:

■That the girls could not get needed treatment in the adult system.

■That prosecuting them as adults is not the only way to deter others from similar crimes.

■That the transfer would "not depreciate the seriousness of the offense."

They presented experts on adolescent brain development, psychiatrists and psychologists who examined the girls, their jailers and former teachers. The witnesses described good students with no history of violence or criminal activity.

The Court of Appeals recounted testimony that minor girls, whether convicted as adults or juveniles, would be processed and serve their first years of the sentence and treatment at Copper Lake School for Girls, part of the state's troubled youth prison complex.

A key difference is that, as adult felons, neither the girls nor and their parents would be involved in the planning of their transition to adult prison or community supervision, while as juveniles, their families would be an integral part of that planning.

Bohren found that would not affect the adequacy of treatment.