Adult trial for Wisconsin girls in Slender Man stabbing

WAUKESHA, Wis. (AP) — A judge has ordered a trial in adult court for two Wisconsin girls accused of stabbing their classmate to please the fantasy horror character Slender Man.

Both girls face a count of first-degree attempted homicide. Waukesha County Circuit Judge Michael Bohren made the decision Friday after spending nearly a month weighing testimony from the girls’ preliminary hearing.

The girls’ attorneys had argued that the girls believed they had to kill their friend to protect their families from Slender Man, a mitigating factor that warranted a charge of second-degree attempted homicide, which would have to be prosecuted in juvenile court.

Prosecutors allege the girls lured Payton Leutner into the woods in Waukesha in May, stabbed her and fled. She survived.

All three girls were 12 at the time.