Slenderman Defendant Ruled Mentally Ill by Jury

WAUKESHA, Wis. (AP) — A jury verdict for a Wisconsin girl who admitted to participating in the 2014 stabbing of a classmate to please horror character Slender Man means she will be sent to a mental hospital rather than prison.

Jurors reached the verdict late Friday in the trial of Anissa Weier. She pleaded guilty in August to but claimed she wasn't responsible for her actions because she was mentally ill. The jury's job was to decide whether she was.

The verdict came after a week's testimony over Weier's mental state at the time she and a friend, Morgan Geyser, stabbed a classmate.

According to investigators, Weier and Geyser stabbed Payton Leutner in a suburban Milwaukee park in 2014. The girl survived. All three were 12 at the time.

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WAUKESHA, Wis. (AP) — An attorney for a Wisconsin teenager who was found by a jury to have been mentally ill in the stabbing of a classmate says the teen was relieved by the verdict.

Maura McMahon says her client, Anissa Weier, cried after the jury delivered its verdict near midnight Friday. It came after a week's testimony over Weier's mental state at the time she and a friend, Morgan Geyser, stabbed a classmate in what they said was an effort to please the fictional horror character known as Slender Man.

The ruling means Weier will go to a mental hospital instead of prison.

Weier's attorneys argue she was delusional at the time of the stabbing, which happened when all three girls were 12. McMahon says she hopes the case shows that kids may be dealing with mental health issues lost on adults too busy to notice.

The prosecutor in the case declined comment, as did the family of the girl who was stabbed. She survived the 2014 attack.