A significant breakthrough in the Charlise Mutten murder trial after the girl was allegedly shot dead and her body dumped in a barrel
- Justin Stein pleads not guilty to the murder of Charlise Mutten
- The nine-year-old boy disappeared in January of last year.
- His remains were found in a barrel near the Colo River.
The jury in Justin Stein’s murder trial will be taken to his family’s multimillion-dollar Blue Mountains estate, where nine-year-old Charlise Mutten was allegedly shot to death, and the stepfather plans to fight the charges.
Stein, 32, pleaded not guilty to Charlise’s murder in the New South Wales Supreme Court on Friday with trial set to take place in May 2024.
Charlise, the daughter of Stein’s then-fiancée, was allegedly shot on the property days before she was reported missing on January 14 of last year.
A five-day search in the bush ended after her body was found in a barrel that had been dumped near the Colo River, northwest of Sydney.
Charlise Mutten (above) disappeared in January of last year, her remains found in a barrel near the Colo River after a five-day search.
Charlise’s mother’s then-fiancé, Justin Stein (above), has pleaded not guilty to the murder of the nine-year-old girl.
Police later said that an autopsy found that he had died from a gunshot wound.
The jury in next year’s trial will spend two days visiting the property and the Colo River location, Stein’s attorney, Susan Davenport SC, said.
“I’ve been to the house on Mount Wilson, it’s not that hard and it’s got a little bit of unpaved road, but it’s mostly paved,” he told Judge Elizabeth Wilson on Friday.
It’s at least three hours there and back, and the Colo River is in Hawkesbury, so it’s going to be a separate excursion.
Stein also faces other charges, including two counts of possession of child abuse material in District Court and one count of trespassing in Local Court.
He will remain in custody until his trial at Parramatta court next year.
The trial jury will visit the Stein family’s Blue Mountains property and the Colo River, where Charlise’s body was found in a barrel after she was allegedly shot (pictured, emergency services at the Colo River during the search for Charlise last January)
