Prosecutors have sought a life sentence for Justin Stein for the murder of schoolgirl Charlise Mutten, with the judge describing the killing as “similar 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 told a sentencing hearing on Friday that Charlise must have fallen to the ground after being shot in the back by Stein.
Stein then walked up to the child and shot her again at close range, about a foot from her face, in what Judge Wilson said was “almost an execution.”
Charlise’s mother Kallista Mutten burst into tears during the hearing and told her former fiancé, “I hate myself for trusting you.”
Ms Mutten read a victim impact statement via audio-video link at the Supreme Court of New South Wales in Sydney where a thin and unkempt Stein appeared in the flesh.
In a trembling voice, Mrs. Mutten told Stein: ‘[Charlise] just wanted you to be her daddy. I just hate myself for being so wrong about you.
“I have to live with the fact that I trusted someone and that because of my trust I put my daughter in danger.”
Justin Stein is convicted of murdering nine-year-old Charlise Mutten (above in December 2021, during her last Christmas) and then dumping her body in a barrel
Justin Stein will likely receive a very long sentence for the murder of 9-year-old Charlise, whom he shot in the face after drugging her and then dumping her body in a barrel in the bushes
Justin Stein tried to blame Kallista Mutten (above with Charlise, during Christmas 2021) for the murder of her own daughter while she was in a drug-induced state
Only the deceased girl’s grandfather, Clinton Mutten, who along with his wife Deborah Charlises was legal guardian, appeared in person at the sentencing.
Stein appeared in court on Friday looking dazed, his hair and beard unkempt and still wearing the same suit he wore during his trial in June and which now hangs around his neck.
He listened silently as prosecutors sought a mandatory life sentence for the murder. Stein will be sentenced Monday, Judge Wilson ruled Friday.
Stein blinked rapidly and then closed his eyes for a few seconds. His leg trembled restlessly as he listened to the statements of Mrs. Mutten and her father.
“I won’t get to see her grow up, have her first boyfriend, and get married,” Charlie’s mother said.
“I miss being Charlise’s mom the most and her saying ‘I love you.’
‘Charlise was my biggest fan and always told me I was the best mother in the world.’
Ms Mutten said that since Charlise’s murder, she has been harassed in public, verbally abused by people on public transport and followed by the media, preventing her from going out.
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 that the last time she saw Charlise, she had told her she was pregnant and that the girl was looking forward to “being an older sister.”
Mrs Mutten added: ‘My life will never be the same again.’
She said Charlise, a schoolgirl at Tweed Heads Primary School, ‘loved being a nerd and reading books’.
The girl was shot twice while vacationing 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 sedated with Stein’s schizophrenia medication and then shot at close range through her right cheek.
Justin Stein is at Bunnings looking for sand to weigh down the barrel he’s placed Charlise’s body in
Detectives found Charlie’s body in this barrel (above, in situ, with the little girl’s remains inside), dumped by Stein on the banks of the Colo River
Stein has been in hiding since the day investigators found Charlise’s 75-pound body, wrapped in a tarp, bound with tape and placed head first in an industrial vat on the banks of the Colo River, a week after the shooting.
During a five-week trial in May-June, he attempted to blame Charlise’s mother, then a heavy intravenous methamphetamine addict, for the murder of her own daughter.
The court heard Kallista gave her a huge amount of ice (17 points a day) and had psychotic episodes when she was lying on the floor, babbling and unintelligible.
But in traumatic testimony at trial, she testified that she was not with Stein or Charlise the night the murder occurred and that she believed his story that her daughter was being cared for by another woman.
On June 19, after 35 hours of deliberation spread over eight days, a jury found Justin Stein guilty of Charlise’s murder.
Stein had already admitted disposing of the body after police released CCTV footage showing him driving the tarpaulin-covered barrel through Sydney, collecting sand at Bunnings to weigh it down, then driving it to the riverbank 100km northwest of Sydney.
Stein alleged that after shooting her daughter, Mrs. Mutten secretly placed Charlise’s body in the barrel and strapped it to the bed of his pickup truck without his knowledge.
But the jury didn’t believe him.
Mrs Mutten denied she had anything to do with her daughter’s death and burst into tears when she was accused in court.
Stein was the defense’s only witness at the trial and spent two days discussing his version of events.
Stein drives through the Lane Cove tunnel with the barrel in the back, covered with a blue tarp
Charlise Mutten at school in 2021, the last year of her short life, and the barrel she was put in when Stein dumped her body in January 2022
An autopsy revealed that Charlise had traces of the antipsychotic drug Quetiapine (also known as Seroquel) in her system, which had been prescribed to Stein.
The jury found that an adult dose of the drug would have a strong sedative effect on a child, but that it was difficult to say how much had been administered to Charlise.
According to Mr McKay, a possible motive was that Stein killed Charlise when she became ill after he gave her the drug.
Stein denied giving Charlise the medication and said he participated in a plan to cover up the murder, lying to police about leaving the girl in the care of an imaginary woman who appraised items on the Mount Wilson estate.
Stein testified that he panicked when he noticed Charlise’s body in a barrel on the back of his pickup truck and eventually threw it away.