WAUKESHA, Wis. (CN) - The two underage girls accused of stabbing a 12-year-old classmate this year face back-to-back competency hearings, a judge said today.
Prosecutors say Morgan Geyser and Anissa Weier were 12 when they spent months planning to kill their classmate, P.L., this year.
During a May 30 sleepover, the trio went into the woods, at which point Geyser and Weier stabbed the girl 19 times, a complaint against them states.
P.L. recovered, and Geyser and Weier were charged as adults with attempted homicide.
Though Geyser, confined to the Winnebago Mental Health Institute, was found incompetent to stand trial on Aug. 1, Judge Michael Bohren held a hearing in Waukesha County Circuit Court on Tuesday because Dr. Kenneth Casimir now deems the girl competent.
Geyser's attorney Anthony Cotton objected to that determination led the court to order back-to-back competency hearings for the girls on Dec. 18.
"We don't think anything has changed in terms of her functioning from where we were a few months ago," Cotton told reporters after the hearing.
Cotton said Geyser still believes in fictional characters including Slender Man, the online boogeyman the girls say they were trying to please by stabbing their classmate.
If Geyser is found competent, the case will go to a preliminary hearing, after which Cotton said he would file a reverse waiver to send the case to juvenile court.
Cotton does not, however, expect Geyser to pass the competency test.
"When the person believes in fictional characters, it makes it difficult for them to assist in their defense," he said.
Weier is being held in Washington County Juvenile Detention.
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