A psychologist has determined the second of two 12-year-old girls charged with stabbing a classmate 19 times in an attempt to please a fictional character called Slender Man has mental health problems that make her unfit to stand trial, her attorney contends. One of the girls was ordered to receive treatment in August after Judge Michael Bohren decided she wouldn't be able to help with her defense if her case went to trial. The second girl is scheduled for a two-day probable cause hearing next week. Bohren will decide after that whether she should stand trial on charges of attempted first-degree intentional homicide.
Her attorney, Assistant State Public Defender Joseph Smith Jr., told Bohren in a letter filed in court Tuesday that after hearing from a forensic psychologist he hired to examine the girl, he had reason to doubt his client's competency.
Wisconsin law requires anyone accused of certain serious crimes to be charged as adults if they are 10 or older. According to a criminal complaint, the girls plotted for months before they lured their former friend into the woods after a sleepover in May and attacked her. They told investigators they hoped it would please Slender Man, a character they had read about in online horror stories. A court-appointed psychologist testified in August that the other girl, who told police she stabbed the victim more than a dozen times, heard voices and believed she could communicate with Slender Man and other fictional characters. There has been no testimony yet in the case about Smith's client's mental health.
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- The Associated Press