Charlise Mutten’s mother sent a text message to her daughter’s alleged killer telling him that she was going to “do it herself” and that she didn’t want to “lose her daughter to” him after discovering that he was cheating on her, he told her. they told the jury.
The day after her daughter was allegedly shot twice, once in the face and once in the lower back, Kallista Mutten sent a message to her then-fiancé and alleged killer Justin Stein.
‘I’m going to grab my daughter and take her to my brother’s house. I’m not going to lose her for you. “I’m so stupid,” said the text sent at 4.11 in the morning.
He would spend the next few days searching the bush surrounding his partner’s property at Mount Wilson in the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney, before Charlise’s body was found on January 18, 2022.
Stein, 33, is on trial in the NSW Supreme Court in Parramatta after pleading not guilty to murder but admitted disposing of the nine-year-old boy’s body.
Charlise Mutten’s body (pictured) was found with two gunshot wounds in a barrel near the Colo River.
Charlise Muteen, 9 (pictured), lived with her grandparents in Tweed Heads, northern New South Wales, but had been visiting her mother and Mr Stein during the school summer holidays and was excited for the trip.
The girl was visiting her mother and Mr Stein during the school holidays, and spent her time in Sydney split between Mr Stein’s family property in Mount Wilson, where she was allegedly shot dead, and at a caravan park called Riviera Ski Gardens in Lower Portland, about 1.5 hours away.
With Detective Sergeant Bradley Gardiner still in the witness box, a series of messages Ms Mutten sent after discovering her then-fiancé was cheating on her was read to the jury on Thursday.
On January 11, 2022, Crown prosecutor Ken McKay SC told the jury that Charlise went to Mount Wilson from the caravan park with Stein, while Mutten stayed behind.
McKay alleges that Stein was the “last person” to see Charlise and have the opportunity to kill her between 7:16 pm on January 11 and 10:06 am on January 12.
The jury was told that Mr Stein picked up Ms Mutten from the caravan park later on January 12, and the mother was under the impression that Charlise was unwell and was being cared for at the property. Mount Wilson.
When they arrived at the house at 8:44 p.m. and discovered Charlise was not there, Mutten called two local hospitals to try to locate her daughter, before the couple went to sleep.
During the night, the jury was told Ms Mutten checked Mr Stein’s phone and saw he had been accessing adult dating sites and cheating on her, causing her “distress”.
At 3:39 a.m., Ms. Mutten sent a message calling Mr. Stein a “liar and a cheat.”
The text continued: “Now I’ve lost my daughter and I’m going to make out, I’m so stupid.”
Justin Stein (pictured) is alleged to have shot Charlise twice: once in the face and once in the lower back.
Fifteen minutes later, the jury was told Ms Mutten took her partner’s car and drove to a local campsite to “gather her emotions and pray for him to come back” before sending another text message to the accused killer.
‘I’m going to grab my daughter and take her to my brother’s house. I’m not going to lose her for you. I’m so stupid,’ she said.
He also messaged a friend telling her that Mr. Stein was cheating on her and that he had “found out” before explaining that he had left his daughter with someone and that she was “now missing.”
Mutten told her friend that she read Stein’s phone number.
“I don’t want to go to the police because I will lose them,” Mrs. Mutten wrote.
‘I’m devo and now my daughter is missing.’
He returned to the Mount Wilson property about 5.47am and sent a message to Mr Stein saying: “I just want my daughter.”
The jury was told there was a “confrontation” between the couple at the house before Mutten drove off again, prompting Stein to leave eight voicemails on her phone demanding she return the vehicle.
Charlise’s mother Kallista Mutten (pictured) texted her fiancé saying she didn’t want to lose her daughter “to you”, the court heard.
Kallista Mutten (pictured) did not call the police until two days after her daughter went missing, the court heard.
‘If you don’t bring him back, I will hurt you and everyone else, and I will tell the police that you were the one who took your daughter so they can bring me my face.’ king car,” said the recording, which was played before the jury.
The jury heard another voicemail in which Mr. Stein said: “I’ve got my damn guns and I’m going to kill you now, and I mean it, you’ve done it.” *You invited me last… you were the one who did this to Charlise to screw me, right? I am going to kill you.’
In another message, Stein tells his then-fiancée that he is “doing the right thing” by “taking care of her” before telling her that she is “going down.”
Ms Mutten did not report her daughter missing until 8.12am on January 14, when the jury heard her triple-0 call in which she sobbed to police that she had been looking for Charlise in the bushes.
“I’m sorry, I need to report my daughter missing… she’s nine years old,” Mrs. Mutten tells the officer through tears.
Charlise’s body was found in a barrel on an embankment near the Colo River four days after her mother reported her missing.
After his arrest in January 2022, Stein denied killing Charlise in an interview with a Correctional Services officer, but said he was “in the vicinity when Kallista Mutten shot and killed the girl,” the jury heard.
A toxicology report showed that Charlise had tested positive for Mr. Stein’s schizophrenia medication.
The trial continues before Judge Helen Wilson.
