'I'm sorry': Morgan Geyser committed to 40 years of institutional care in 'Slender Man' stabbing case

WAUKESHA, Wis. -- (WITI) -- A Waukesha County judge committed Morgan Geyser on Thursday, Feb. 1 to 40 years of institutional cared. Geyser was one of two Wisconsin girls who tried to kill a classmate with a knife to appease fictional horror character Slenderman.

Forty years is the maximum sentence allowed — and the term prosecutors had sought in the case against Geyser.

“This is an issue of community protection. This is an issue of recidivism. This is an issue to ensure that Ms. Geyser doesn't have a revolving door situation where she ends up being in the community and then things fall apart and she comes back,” Judge Michael Bohren. “Everyone who's in the legal system that's dealt with mental health issues from an NGI standpoint or from a civil commitment process, know that individuals with mental health issues — as well as they are medicated, as well as they are well taken care of — frequently come back because they decompensate; something happens. The court has to be sure when that happens, there is control, there is supervision. Thus, the length of the commitment I believe is appropriate at 40 years — and that'll be the order of the court.”

In court on Thursday afternoon, Geyser was given the opportunity speak before her sentence was handed down.

“I'm sorry,” Geyser said. “I never meant this to happen. I hope that she's doing well.” Geyser was referring to the victim in this case, her former classmate.

Thursday's hearing included victim impact statements and doctors who have evaluated Geyser. She pleaded guilty to attempted first-degree intentional homicide in October in a deal with prosecutors to avoid prison.

Geyser and Anissa Weier lured the classmate into the woods in a park and repeatedly stabbed her with a kitchen knife. Geyser stabbed the classmate 19 times while Weier urged her on, according to investigators. The classmate was left for dead but she crawled out of the woods and got help from a passing bicyclist. She and her attackers were all 12 at the time.

Weier was sentenced to 25 years in a mental hospital in December. She had pleaded guilty in August to being a party to attempted second-degree intentional homicide, but she claimed she wasn't responsible for her actions because she was mentally ill. In September, a jury agreed.

Geyser's attorneys have argued in court documents that she suffers from schizophrenia and psychotic spectrum disorder, making her prone to delusions and paranoid beliefs.

A psychiatrist hired by her attorneys previously testified that Geyser believed she could communicate telepathically with Slender Man and could see and hear other fictional characters, including unicorns and characters from the Harry Potter and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series. She also believed she had "Vulcan mind control."

Slenderman started with an online post in 2009, as a mysterious specter whose image people edit into everyday scenes of children at play. He is typically depicted as a spidery figure in a black suit with a featureless white face.