Schoolgirl Charlise Mutten was shot in the face with a gun pointed just a foot away from her, a coroner has told the trial of her stepfather accused of her murder.
Justin Stein, 33, denies killing the nine-year-old girl in January 2022, but admits helping to dispose of her body by dumping it near a remote river.
Forensic pathologist Dr Marna Du Plessis performed an autopsy on Charlise’s body after it was found in the sand-filled barrel with her pink Nike sandals.
She said possible “gunpowder tattoo” marks around the gunshot wound to the girl’s face led her to believe that “the end of the barrel … was about a ruler” away.
Despite being in “an advanced state of decomposition”, Dr Du Plessis said Charlise had been “shot on the right side of her face, and the bullet entered her brain”.
Dr Du Plessis said that this was the fatal shot and that she was still alive when she was shot, as another shot to Charlise’s back above her left hip would not have killed her.
An autopsy on the victim revealed that he had a quantity of the antipsychotic drug Quetiapine, which was the same medication Justin Stein took for his achyzphrenia.
The trial heard on Thursday morning how Stein had been “very agitated” in the days after Charlise was reported missing and offered several theories about where she was.
The fatal shot that killed nine-year-old Charlise was fired “within the length of a ruler” from the end of her snout to her face, the trial heard.
The court heard that he and Charlise’s mother, Kallista Mutten, had been “very affectionate” to the “lovely, talkative and affectionate” girl in the week before her death.
Charlise’s final days were described in detail by Jane Hutt, the Steins’ neighbor at their luxurious Wildenstein estate on Mount Wilson in the Blue Mountains of New South Wales.
Ms Hutt said she met Charlise at a dinner at Wildenstein on January 3, when the girl “was also warm to us”.
“He gave my mother a big hug,” she said.
“She seemed very talkative and comfortable with adults.”
But just a few days later, on Jan. 15, Hutt said he heard sirens and saw police cars in Wildenstein, before Stein’s mother, Annemie, showed up and said, “I need a drink.”
At the time of her death, Charlise was visiting her mother during school holidays at the Stein family home.
Stein, who was engaged to Ms Mutten, 40 at the time, is on trial in the New South Wales Supreme Court in Parramatta accused of killing the girl between 7.16pm on January 11 and 10:06 am on January 12, 2022.
Ms Hutt revealed that Stein’s mother spent the night at her home due to police activity in Wildenstein and took her to Penrith police station the next day to collect her son.
Stein returned with them to the Hutt home, dressed in a blue police forensics suit, where he spent the night and, the next morning, was “very agitated, wringing his hands”, Mrs Hutt told the court.
She said she asked him directly: ‘Justin, where do you think the girl is?’ and he answered: ‘I don’t know, Kallista has done something with the girl. She didn’t want to give the girl back. She wanted the three of us to run away.
When Hutt asked Stein what he thought Mutten had done with Charlise, he said that some of his friends had taken the girl, who were “bad people.”
Ms Hutt said Stein told her he had left Charlise with an antiques expert from Lawson’s Auctions and that the young woman had been ill at the time and “had vomited into a bucket”.
He said Ms Mutten had left in her red ute and then abandoned the vehicle “up the lane”.
Ms Hutt then reported the conversation to police after Stein left her home.
Annemie Stein’s friend and former partner, Peter Moraschi, had known Justin Stein for years and met Kallista Mutten when she went to live in Wildenstein after Justin was released from prison.
Asked about preparations for the schoolgirl’s return to live with her grandparents in Tweed Heads after the holidays, Mr Morashci said: “Kallista didn’t want Charlise to come back, she wanted Charlise to stay with her.”
Police allege Charlise Mutten was murdered at Wildenstein, the Stein family’s luxurious estate at Mount Wilson in the Blue Mountains.
The trial had previously heard how the nine-year-old girl’s body was bound with blood-stained zip ties and buried in a barrel filled with sand with her pink Nike sandals.
The barrel was then dumped on the bank of a lonely river, where it was later discovered by detectives before being taken to Sydney’s main mortuary, the court was told.
On Wednesday, the alleged murder weapon, a .22-caliber BSA bolt-action rifle, which had been wrapped in plastic with its magazine, ammunition and scope, was shown to the jury, who were allowed to handle it as they passed it around.
Creepy details about how Charlise Mutten’s body (above) was buried in sand in a barrel with her pink Nike sneakers have emerged at the trial of her alleged killer, Justin Stein.
Schoolgirl Charlise’s body was found in the fetal position in the barrel (pictured behind the red ute) that was dumped on the banks of the Colo River in January 2022.
Stein was arrested on January 18 after Charlise’s body was found in a barrel in the Colo River, 58 kilometers from Mount Wilson.
Homicide squad senior detective Justin Haydon revealed he had gone searching the riverbank on a set of GPS coordinates taken from Stein’s mobile phone.
He told the court he found a “reddish-brown drum with a lid… on an embankment” which was later recovered using a hydraulic crane.
After unscrewing the lid of the barrel and removing the sand, police located “what appeared to be human remains.”
Mitchell James, a former forensic and crime scene police officer, described how the autopsy of “the unknown woman inside the barrel” began at 8.30am on January 20, 2022.
Reading his post-mortem statement, James said “the deceased appeared to be head down in a fetal position… bound with a series of blood-stained bandages.”
Also inside the barrel was up to 100 kilos of sand, vegetation and soil “with apparent blood stains,” he said.
“The deceased was tied up with several blood-stained wrappings, her head and legs… on a blood-stained blue tarp with clear and brown packing tape” and a “plastic bag with a pair of pink Nike flip-flops,” he said. to court. .
Custody of Kallista Mutten’s daughter Charlsie (above) was a topic of discussion at a dinner party shortly before the schoolgirl’s alleged shooting.
Kallista Mutten’s intensive use of ice was revealed during the test
James said the girl’s head and torso were inside a white plastic woven bag, stained with blood and tied with black tape.
In addition to the pink Nike flip-flops, Charlise’s outfit included a black jacket, a red shirt, black children’s sweatpants, a size 10 black Target skirt ‘with penetrating damage to the back,’ and a black hoop earring on her lobe. of the left ear.
An internal examination during the autopsy revealed lead fragments in the deceased girl’s brain and in her left hip.
Examination of the body also found a 5mm x 5mm entry wound to the right cheek, where the bullet struck and dislodged a tooth and lodged in the base of the skull.
There was also an oval-shaped entry wound on the lower left back, above the right hip, which was 5mm high and 8mm wide and had pierced the pelvic bone.
On Wednesday, Tony Hutt, one of the Steins’ neighbors in Mount Wilson, told the court that he frequently socialized with Stein’s mother at dinners at their respective homes.
He described a strange encounter with Stein when he was lying face down in a sewer and claimed that he was “digging for treasure” when he was disturbed by Mr. Hutt and his German shepherd dog.
Hutt told the court he then took police to that location where they allegedly found two firearms, the .22 BSA rifle and a .30 Winchester lever-action rifle.
On another occasion, during a dinner with Stein, his mother, Charlise and Kallista, he told the court that the defendant had made a strange comment.
The autopsy revealed details about the fatal gunshot wounds the 9-year-old girl suffered while on vacation with her mother and then stepfather, Justin Stein.
Justin Stein, 33, is accused of the alleged murder of Charlise Mutten while the schoolgirl was staying at his family’s property, Wildenstein.
Describing Ms Mutten’s apparent relationship with her daughter as “exceptional”, Mr Hutt said the issue of Charlise’s custody was discussed.
Due to Ms. Mutten’s extensive drug history with methamphetamines, Charlise typically lived with her maternal grandparents in Tweed Heads.
The court heard that Mrs Mutten had been using 17 ice points daily and had been admitted to hospital twice in the months leading up to Charlise’s planned visit.
Hutt said he remembered one particular comment Stein made about Charlise.
“I can remember the conversation,” he told the court.
“Justin said if something happened and the boy didn’t return to Queensland he would end up in prison again.”
The trial before Judge Helen Wilson continues.
