Massive meth binge of Charlie Mutten’s ‘ice addict’ mother revealed in court – before the schoolgirl was allegedly shot in the face by her stepdad who stashed her body in a barrel and dumped it in the bush

The murder case against Charlise Mutten shows how the schoolgirl’s mother had a meth addiction and was found screaming, incoherent and shoeless on a road while lying on ice.

Justin Stein, 33, the former fiancée of Charlise’s mother Kallista Mutten, 40, is on trial in the NSW Supreme Court in Parramatta accused of shooting her nine-year-old daughter.

He denies murdering Charlise, but admits that he disposed of the child’s body.

On Wednesday, the court heard that Charlise’s mother had been admitted to Katoomba Hospital in March 2021 in ‘a drug-induced condition’.

Her notes revealed that bystanders had found her “in the middle of a cul-de-sac, rocking, repeating sentences, shaking, shivering, shoeless.”

Mrs Mutten was heard shouting: ‘I wasn’t there for my children. My children come first. Have I hurt anyone? I want to be there for my children,” the court was told.

She had been released from Sydney’s Royal Prince Alfred Hospital four days earlier and medical records show she had been taking 17 points of methamphetamine daily.

Detective Sergeant Bradley Gardiner, the officer leading the investigation, agreed in court that this was ‘very high’, with one point being equivalent to 0.1 milligrams of the drug.

Ms Mutten had also previously pleaded guilty to a fatal car crash in which she had been driving with methamphetamine in her blood, Detective Inspector Gardiner told the court.

The court heard that Ms Mutten had used 17 points of ice daily for 24 of the previous 28 days before her episode.

She had been taking ice since she was 17, the jury was told, but had withdrawn from drugs while in prison between 2016 and 2019.

However, she relapsed after her release and started injecting in October 2020.

She admitted to self-harm and suicidal thoughts at Katoomba Hospital, and at RPA she admitted she was ‘hypersensitive to interpersonal conflict’ which led to her ‘cutting myself’.

“I cut myself to keep them from leaving the relationship, and that usually works,” she told RPA staff.

‘That is not true. It’s a form of manipulation… that can cause paranoia to last for days.”

Hospital records showed Ms Mutten claimed Stein suffered from schizophrenia but had a support network including his mother, his probation officer and a drug and alcohol counselor.

She said her daughter was coming to visit in a few months and would stay for two weeks. Ms Mutten added: ‘I should have a support system in place by then.’

Det Sgt Gardiner agreed in court that this meant that ‘even though the daughter went down, she (Kallista) was still indulging her addiction’.

At the time of her death, Charlise was visiting her mother during the school holidays at the Stein family property at Mount Wilson in the NSW Blue Mountains.

Stein, who was engaged to Ms Mutten at the time, is accused of killing the girl between January 11, 7:16 p.m., and January 12, 2022, at 10:06 a.m.

He was arrested on January 18 after Charlise’s body was found in a barrel on the Colo River, 58km from Mount Wilson.

On Monday, a phone call was played to the jury in which Stein claimed to his mother that Charlise had shouted “Mama, no” before being shot by her mother who was on a three-day ice bender.

Several phone calls Justin Stein allegedly made to his mother in the days and weeks after his arrest were played in court, during which he said he witnessed the moment the nine-year-old was shot.

In the phone call, Stein’s mother, Annemie Stein, begged her son not to say the fatal shooting took place at the family’s luxury estate in Mount Wilson.

In response, Stein agreed, saying it was instead “on crown land, behind the shed, on the firebreak.”

“She (Charlise) ran downstairs, screamed my name, then you heard ‘Mama, no’ and then the second shot,” the court heard him say in the recorded phone call from behind bars.

Justin Stein is on trial for the alleged murder of Charlise Mutten, 9

He said Charlise’s mother, Kallista Mutten, was “in deep ice bender for three days” and “severe paranoia… you could see how it was getting, I was losing my shit,” the jury heard.

Several jailhouse telephone conversations between Stein and his mother after his arrest were played in court, in which she asked him to explain why Charlise’s body had been in a barrel down the back of his pants.

They also discussed the fact that Kallista was pregnant because, Stein explained, her medication “f***ed with the birth control,” the jury heard.

“So he will be a born ice cream addict,” Annemie allegedly asked her son during the telephone conversation.

Stein had said earlier in the phone call ‘I don’t want it’, but Annemie replied that Kallista ‘is going to get it’, the court heard.

Annemie also told her son in the phone call that Kallista had once threatened ‘she would take you and me down’, the court heard.

Stein allegedly told his mother it was Kallista’s idea to have Charlise’s body in a barrel in the bin at the back of his ute and that he only later knew the girl’s remains were in there, the jury heard.

“That’s what she was doing. She put it on the back of (his vehicle). I picked up supplies to do cement work,” he said during the record-breaking call played in court.

‘I get a phone call at Bunnings and she says, ‘You’ve got Charlise with you’.

“I was driving around with a damn girl in the back of my car.”

Justin Stein claimed in a phone conversation that Kallista Mutten shot her daughter once, and after the girl shouted “Mama, no,” shot her a second time

Stein agreed with his mother that was why he drove around for five hours before dumping the barrel because he didn’t know what to do, the court was told.

“I was panicking,” he added during the phone call.

In another phone call to his mother in February 2022, Stein told her he was just days away from breaking up with Kallista when the shooting occurred, the court heard.

“I was so close to losing her, just a few more days and that girl would be on a flight,” he said in the phone call played in court.

‘Now I’m in prison. If she (Kallista) doesn’t go to jail, I will literally lose my dick when I get out.”

Two NSW Corrective Services staffers who met Stein upon arrival at Silverwater prison on January 20, 2022, testified that he insisted to them that Kallista had killed her daughter.

Stacey Sweeney told the court she asked Stein, “Did you do it,” and he replied, “No.” Her mother shot her twice. Her mother was on ice all week.”

“I heard a shot and then heard her screaming for me, and then I ran back and I heard another shot.”

In phone conversations between Justin Stein (above) and his mother after his arrest and incarceration, he claims it was Kallista who shot Charlise while she was high on methamphetamine.

Ms Sweeney said Stein had become “emotional” and she handed him paper towels.

She said he added: “I keep getting flashbacks. I’m not going for that b****. Thanks for letting me vent, I’ve been trying to tell people since day one. No one will listen.’

The jury was shown photographs taken in the barrel where police found Charlise’s remains, blood-stained soil, sand, a tarpaulin and a white PVC gunny bag.

Charlise was dressed in black leggings or sweatpants, a skirt, a red top and a black hoodie.

Judge Helen Wilson instructed the jury that while the images were confrontational, none of the images showed Charlise’s wounds and should not prejudice their minds in any way.

The jury also watched drone footage of police along the Colo River with a blue crime tent over the scene on January 18, 2022 when the girl was found wrapped in the barrel.

The court heard that Stein purchased three bags of ‘play sand’ and two bags of coarse sand from Bunnings in Marsden Park at around 5.30pm on January 13, 2022.

He had partly used a Bunnings gift voucher to purchase the items, and took another gift voucher as change.

Previously, the court heard that Stein had used eBay to order the shipment of a rifle scope to his mother’s address, which was attached to a .30-caliber Winchester lever-action rifle.

This and another weapon, a BSA .22 caliber bolt action rifle, had been stolen from a neighbour’s home near the Mount Wilson property in Steins and were linked to the alleged shooting murder, the jury was told.

Police found both weapons wrapped up and in or next to Coles and Woolworths bags along a fire trail not far from the Mount Wilson site, the court heard.

The process continues.