A gruesome new charge has been brought against the man accused of the murder of nine-year-old schoolgirl Charlise Mutten.
Justin Stein, 32, has been charged with disturbing a corpse after police alleged he shot and killed Charlsie at the Stein family’s luxury Blue Mountains estate in January 2022 and then placed her remains in a barrel and placed them on a riverbank had dumped.
Penrith local court heard the new charge on Friday and that Stein’s murder charge had been amended to classify it as a domestic violence offence.
Stein, who was the fiancé of Charlise’s mother Kallista at the time of the alleged murder, has been described as the schoolgirl’s “stepfather.”
However, Stein’s lawyer, Peter Katsoolis, told Daily Mail Australia that was not the case.
He said Kallista Mutten had a “distant relationship” with her daughter and questioned the nature of Charlise and Stein’s relationship at the time of the girl’s death.
Mr Katsoolis said he did not believe the case would go to court until 2024 and there was a huge amount of evidence to go through.
Stein is accused of shooting the Tweed Heads primary school student on his family’s property on Mt Wilson while on holiday with her mother in NSW after Christmas.
Attorney for accused killer Justin Stein has claimed that the domestic violence murder charge did not reflect the genuine nature of his client’s relationship with nine-year-old Charlise Mutten (above)
Justin Stein has been charged with a new charge related to the January incidents of disturbing a corpse (above, a barrel allegedly containing Charlise’s remains in Stein’s red ute)
Justin Stein, 31, (pictured) has been charged with domestic violence-related murder, interference with a corpse, possession of a firearm and two counts of possession of child abuse material
He was arrested shortly after Charlise’s body was found on January 18 in bushland near the Colo River and charged with murder, which Mr Katsoolis has said he intends to fight.
Stein has since been charged with gun possession and two counts of possession of child abuse material.
Kallista Mutten pleaded guilty to stealing two guns and silver household items, allegedly in the company of Justin Stein during a burglary at a house belonging to a neighbor of Stein’s mountain estate last August.
Mutten, 39, was sentenced to community service and returned to a Campbelltown drug rehabilitation center for further treatment.
The gun charges relate to two firearms – a Winchester lever-action shotgun and a BSA .22 caliber bolt action rifle – and ammunition in bushland near where the schoolgirl disappeared.
Police records say on forensic examination by the expert detectives investigating the schoolgirl’s death that “Ballistics of BSA .22 bolt action rifle identified features consistent with the firearm used in the (alleged) murder, but was unable to to make a final comparison’.
Stein’s charges are: one count of domestic violence-related murder, one count of breaking into a corpse, two counts of possession of an unregistered firearm, two counts of possession of an unauthorized firearm, possession of unlicensed ammunition/ permit and aggravated burglary in company.
Two counts of possession of child abuse material were for unrelated matters, police said.
Charlise (pictured) is believed to have been fatally shot with a ‘small bore rifle’ sometime between January 10 and 11
The schoolgirl’s mother, Kallista Mutten (above), pleaded guilty to stealing two guns and silver household items. She was sentenced to community service and is expected to testify against her former lover
Mr Katsoolis said ‘there is no clear motive’ for his client or anyone else to allegedly kill Charlise and that he had ‘a long way to go analyzing all that movement’ in relation to CCTV footage provided by police were released and allegedly driving Stein. shortly after the girl’s death with a barrel in the back of his red ute.
At the time of the alleged murder, Charlise’s mother, Kallista, was staying at a trailer park in Lower Portland on the Hawkesbury River, 50 miles (81 km) from the luxury Mount Wilson estate, where Charlise is believed to have died, according to police.
Charlise was reportedly fatally shot with a ‘small bore rifle’ between January 10 and 11.
Ms. Mutten reported her daughter missing on the Wildenstein property on the morning of January 14, and police found her remains in a blue barrel 40 miles away on the banks of the Colo River on the afternoon of January 18.
Kallista Mutten (above) took her daughter Charlise on holiday to NSW with new boyfriend Justin Stein, a trip that ended with the schoolgirl’s tragic alleged murder
Stein was arrested the same night and charged with the alleged murder of Charlise.
An autopsy on Charlise’s remains revealed the cause of death, and investigators released CCTV footage in February reportedly showing Stein’s red Holden Colorado ute with a barrel-shaped object in the back under a blue tarpaulin driving a white boat around several Sydney locations. drags.
Kallista Mutten has indicated she will testify against her former lover in Justin Stein’s murder trial.
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