text: Anissa E. Weier is led into a Waukesha County courtroom Thursday for a hearing on whether she is competent to stand trial on accusations she tried to stab a classmate to death. A judge earlier ordered that her face not be photographed. Co-defendant Morgan Geyser was also found competent for trial on Thursday. Credit: Michael Sears 
   
   By of the 
   
   Waukesha — Two middle school girls charged with trying to kill a classmate to gain favor with Slender Man, a fictional Internet character, were ruled competent Thursday to face their prosecution. 
   
   The rulings came amid the revelation that one of the defendants suffers from schizophrenia. 
   
   Waukesha County Circuit Judge Michael Bohren found Anissa Weier, 13, competent after a three-hour hearing Thursday morning at which mental health experts offered differing conclusions on that issue. 
   
   Morgan Geyser, 12, had been set for a similar hearing in the afternoon to challenge a state psychiatrist's finding that, through treatment, she had regained competency after being ruled in August to be unable to fully understand the charges or aid in her own defense. 
   
   But at the start of the hearing, attorney Anthony Cotton announced that her defense team was dropping its objection to the finding by state psychiatrist Kenneth Casimir, and would agree that she is now competent to proceed. 
   
   Cotton revealed in court that Casimir has diagnosed Geyser with schizophrenia, a mental illness. Cotton then asked if Bohren would order that Geyser continue to be held at the Winnebago Mental Health Institute, where she has been for months and where she can continue to be monitored by doctors while attending school and seeing a social worker. 
   
   Cotton said there would be a good chance Geyser might regress to incompetency if returned to the juvenile detention facility in West Bend where she had been kept until August, and where Weier remains. 
   
   Bohren granted the request, for now. 
   
   The long awaited preliminary hearings in the case, which was charged in June, are now set for February, likely the week of the 16th. 
   
   At those hearings prosecutors must show simple probable cause that the girls committed the specific offense of attempted first degree intentional homicide. 
   
   Then the case can move to what the defense attorneys have said will be critical — their attempts to have the case "reverse waived" to juvenile court. That would be considered at a future hearing. 
   
   As adults, they could face up to 60 years in prison. As juveniles, they could be held in a secure facility until they're 25. 
   
   Conflicting findings 
   
   Bohren made his ruling on Weier after hearing from three mental health professionals who have examined Weier. Two psychologists retained by the defense believed she is not competent, based on an emotional immaturity and the lack of strategic decision making ability. One was a psychiatrist appointed by the court who said he believed Weier, whom he found extremely intelligent, was competent. 
   
   All three said they found Weier to be bright, articulate and cooperative. They agreed she seemed to understand the serious charges she faces, at least at the very broadest level. 
   
   But the psychologists felt that in terms of applying her knowledge to decisions about things like whether to plea bargain, she lacked competence,based on her age and immaturity, not any mental illness. 
   
   While she could be tutored on better understanding of legal procedure, only time will allow the brain development that would increase her rational decision making capacity, they said. 
   
   Robert Rawski, the forensic psychiatrist, thought Weier showed she could rationally participate in court proceedings and adequately aid in her defense. 
   
   Weier's attorneys argued that the psychologists had more experience working with juveniles, and spent more time with Weier before reaching their conclusions, which came down to nuanced understandings of adolescent brain development. 
   
   One of the psychologists, Michael Caldwell, was concerned that Weier didn't have a meaningful understanding of time frames, including the fact she could go to prison far longer than she has been alive. 
   
   Caldwell also said Weier had a tendency, despite high intelligence, to ignore things most people would agree are important to consider in a decision and instead base choices on irrelevant factors. . 
   
   The Slender Man stabbing 
   
   Geyser and Weier are charged as adults in the May stabbing of Payton Leutner in a Waukesha park after a sleepover to celebrate Geyer's birthday. 
   
   The pair told investigators they were trying to gain the favor of Slender Man, a fictional online character. Leutner survived her wounds and has since returned to school. 
   
   Attorneys for each girl have said they will try to have their cases moved to juvenile court. 
   
   Geyser already has been found incompetent once, meaning the judge was not convinced she fully understood the charges or was able to aid in her defense. But after weeks of mental treatment, a doctor last month said Geyser had been restored to competency. 
   
   At Geyser's first competency hearing in August, mental health experts testified that during their interviews she exhibited disturbing behavior and beliefs: squatting on her chair, laughing hysterically for no reason, constantly looking in corners. 
   
   She said she had conversations with the fictional Lord Voldemort character from the Harry Potter stories and a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle. She repeated her belief in Slender Man, unicorns and her own power of "Vulcan mind control." 
   
   The experts said Geyser, in addition to being immature, may suffer from an undiagnosed psychiatric illness. ||||| WAUKESHA, Wis. (AP) — Two Wisconsin girls accused of stabbing a classmate to please a fantasy character called Slender Man are mentally fit to stand trial on attempted homicide charges, a judge ruled Thursday. 
   
   Experts for the state concluded that both girls would be able to assist in their own defenses but their attorneys disagreed with the findings. Waukesha County Circuit Judge Michael Bohren sided with the state during back-to-back hearings to decide the issue Thursday. 
   
   During the first hearing, the 13-year-old girl watched quietly as experts explained why they thought she was or wasn't fit to go on trial. Wearing a black pantsuit and shackles, she only spoke to tell the judge that she believed she wasn't competent. 
   
   Psychologists Anthony Jurek and Michael Caldwell testified for the defense that they interviewed the girl several times. They said she's clearly intelligent but has trouble making decisions when she's bombarded with information. She doesn't understand the nuances of the criminal justice system, such as the risk of turning down a plea bargain, they said. 
   
   Psychiatrist Robert Rawski testified for the state that he believed the girl was highly capable. Ted Szczupakiewicz, an assistant district attorney, said judging by the two defense psychologists' reports the girl answered their questions about the legal process correctly. 
   
   Bohren said that by all accounts the girl is highly intelligent. 
   
   "I'm satisfied that the issues of age and maturity do not override her competency," he said. "She's competent to make the decisions that have to be made." 
   
   The judge ordered the other girl to undergo mental health treatment in August after a psychologist testified that she claimed to see and hear unicorns, Slender Man and Lord Voldemort, the villain from the "Harry Potter" series. Psychiatrist Kenneth Casimir generated a report in November, however, that found her mental state had improved. 
   
   Bailiffs led that girl into the courtroom for her hearing in shackles, too. She wore black leggings and a zip-up sweatshirt over a Batman T-shirt. 
   
   The proceeding lasted only a few minutes. Her attorney, Anthony Cotton, told the judge the girl suffers from schizophrenia, but he declined to challenge Casimir's report, offering the judge no explanation. After the proceeding, he told reporters that he felt he didn't have a strong basis to challenge the report. 
   
   Bohren said he thought Casimir's report was credible and deemed the girl competent to stand trial. 
   
   The judge set a joint preliminary hearing, the point in the legal process where he will have to decide whether enough evidence exists to proceed to trial, for February. 
   
   Prosecutors have charged both girls with attempted first-degree intentional homicide in the attack in May in Waukesha, a city of 71,000 about 15 miles west of Milwaukee. They say the girls plotted for months to kill classmate Payton Leutner, luring her to a wooded park after a sleepover and stabbing her 19 times. After her attackers left, Leutner crawled through the woods to a sidewalk where a bicyclist found her and called 911. 
   
   The two girls charged in the case were found walking toward a national forest where they said they believed Slender Man lived in a mansion. They told investigators they believed killing Leutner would curry favor with the figure. 
   
   All three girls were 12 at the time of the incident. The first girl that Bohren found competent Thursday has since turned 13. 
   
   The Associated Press isn't naming either defendant because their attorneys have said they may still try to move their cases into juvenile court, where proceedings are secret. 
   
   ___ 
   
   Follow Todd Richmond on Twitter at https://twitter.com/trichmond1
target: – Two Wisconsin girls who allegedly stabbed a classmate 19 times to please the "Slender Man" fictional online character are competent to stand trial, a judge has decided. Both girls, who were 12 when they allegedly tried to kill another 12-year-old girl after a sleepover, have been charged as adults. Morgan Geyser, who is still 12, was ruled incompetent in August after a psychologist testified that she was delusional, but at a hearing yesterday, her lawyer decided not to dispute a state psychiatrist's finding that she is now fit for trial, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports. The attorney told the judge that Geyser is being treated for schizophrenia. In a separate hearing, Anissa Weier, now 13, was also deemed competent after the judge decided that "issues of age and maturity do not override her competency," the AP reports. Psychologists who testified for the defense argued that although she is intelligent and articulate, she has trouble making decisions and understanding issues like the risk of turning down a plea bargain. Lawyers for both girls are trying to have the case moved to juvenile court. The judge decided to allow Geyser to remain at the mental health institute where she has been for months after her lawyer argued that returning her to the juvenile detention facility where Weier is still being held could lead to her becoming unfit for trial again. (The sinister Slender Man character was created by an online forum user in 2009.)