Prosecutors have sought a life sentence for Justin Stein for the murder of schoolgirl Charlise Mutten, which the judge has described as “akin to an execution.”
Stein is being sentenced for the 2022 fatal shooting of nine-year-old Charlise in the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney, and dumping her body in a barrel.
Judge Helen Wilson said at a sentencing hearing Friday that after Stein shot her in the back, Charlise must have fallen to the ground.
Stein then approached the girl and, 30 centimetres from her face, fired again at point-blank range, which “was almost execution-like”, Judge Wilson said.
Charlise’s mother, Kallista Mutten, broke down in tears during the hearing, telling her ex-fiancé: “I hate myself for trusting you.”
Ms Mutten read a victim impact statement via audio and video link to the NSW Supreme Court in Sydney where a thin, disheveled-looking Stein appeared in person.
Her voice shaking, Mrs. Mutten told Stein: “(Charlise) just longed for you to be her father. I hate myself for being so wrong about you.”
‘I am forced to live with the fact that I trusted someone and because of that trust, I put my daughter in danger.’
Justin Stein is being sentenced for murdering nine-year-old Charlise Mutten (above, in December 2021, on her last Christmas) and then dumping her body in a barrel.
Justin Stein will likely receive a very long sentence for murdering 9-year-old Charlise, whom he shot in the face after drugging her and then dumped her body in a barrel in the woods.
Justin Stein attempted to frame Kallista Mutten (above with Charlise, Christmas 2021) for murdering her own daughter while in a drug-induced state.
Only the dead girl’s grandfather, Clinton Mutten, who along with his wife Deborah was Charlise’s legal guardian, appeared in person at the sentencing.
Stein was brought into court Friday looking dazed, his hair and beard thick and unkempt, and wearing the same suit he wore to his trial in June that now hangs on him.
Stein listened in silence as prosecutors asked for a mandatory life sentence for the murder. Stein will be sentenced on Monday, Judge Wilson ruled Friday.
Stein blinked rapidly and then closed his eyes for several seconds, his leg shaking restlessly as he listened to Mrs. Mutten and his father’s statements.
“I won’t see her grow up, have her first boyfriend and get married,” Charlie’s mother said.
‘What I miss most is being Charlise’s mom and having her tell me I love you.
‘Charlise was my biggest fan and always said I was the best mom in the world.’
Ms Mutten said that since Charlise’s murder, she had been harassed in public, abused by people on public transport and followed by the media to the point where she was unable to go outside.
Only Charlise’s grandfather, Clinton Mutten (above), who along with his wife Deborah was the nine-year-old’s legal guardian, showed up for Justin Stein’s sentencing.
She said the last time she saw her, she had told Charlise she was pregnant and that the girl was looking forward to “being a big sister.”
Ms Mutten added: “My life will never be the same.”
She said Charlise, a pupil at Tweed Heads Primary School, “loved being a nerd and reading books”.
The young woman was shot twice while on vacation with her mother and Stein at Stein’s luxurious family home in Mount Wilson in January 2022.
But between January 11 and 12, 2022, she was drugged with Stein’s schizophrenia medication and then shot at point-blank range in the right cheek.
Justin Stein buys sand from Bunnings to make the barrel he has put Charlise’s body in heavier
Detectives found Charlie’s body in this barrel (above, in situ, with the girl’s remains inside), dumped by Stein on the banks of the Colo River.
Stein has been behind bars since the day, a week after the shooting, detectives found Charlise’s 75-pound body wrapped in a tarp, bound with tape and head-forward inside an industrial barrel on the banks of the Colo River.
During a five-week trial in May-June, he attempted to frame Charlise’s mother, then a serious intravenous methamphetamine addict, for murdering her own daughter.
The court heard Kallista injected himself with a massive amount of “17 points a day” of ice and had suffered psychotic episodes as he lay on the ground, babbling incoherently.
But in a shocking testimony at the trial, he said he had not been with Stein or Charlise on the night of the murder and believed her story that her daughter was being cared for by another woman.
On June 19, after deliberating for 35 hours over eight days, a jury found Justin Stein guilty of Charlise’s murder.
Stein had already admitted dumping the body, after police showed CCTV footage showing him driving the tarpaulin-wrapped barrel around Sydney, collecting sand from Bunnings to weigh it down, then heading to a riverbank 100km northwest of Sydney.
Stein had claimed that after Mrs. Mutten shot her daughter, he secretly placed Charlise’s body in the barrel and secured it in the back of his truck without her knowledge.
But the jury didn’t believe him.
Ms Mutten denied any involvement in her daughter’s death and broke down in tears when faced with the accusation in court.
Stein appeared as the defense’s only witness at the trial and spent two days going over his version of events.
Stein exiting Lane Cove tunnel with barrel on back covered by blue tarp
Charlise Mutten at school in 2021, the last year of her short life, and the barrel she was placed in when Stein disposed of her body in January 2022
An autopsy found that Charlise had traces of the antipsychotic drug quetiapine (also known as Seroquel) in her system, which had been prescribed to Stein.
The jury heard that an adult dose of the drug would have a profound sedative effect on a child, but that it was difficult to determine how much Charlise had been given.
McKay said one possible motive was that Stein killed Charlise when she became ill after he gave her the drug.
Stein denied giving Charlise the drug and said he had followed a plan to cover up the murder, which included lying to police about leaving the girl in the care of an imaginary woman who was appraising items at the Mount Wilson estate.
Stein testified that when he realized Charlise’s body was in a barrel in the back of his truck, he panicked and eventually got rid of it.