Chilling CCTV shows killer Justin Stein’s 21 minute shopping spree at Bunnings for sand to weigh down murdered schoolgirl Charlise Mutten’s body in a barrel

Chilling footage has emerged of schoolgirl killer Justin Stein casually buying bags of sand in suburban Bunnings to weigh down the barrel used to hide the girl’s body.

Stein, 33, has been found guilty of shooting Charlise Mutten in the face, with her body discovered dumped in a barrel near the Colo River area following a month-long trial in the NSW Supreme Court.

Charlise was the nine-year-old daughter of his then fiancée Kallista Mutten

According to CCTV footage tendered into evidence at the trial, Stein was caught entering Bunnings Marden Park in Sydney’s northwest at 5.27pm on January 13, 2022.

Wearing a surgical mask, wearing dark shorts, a gray top, open-toed shoes and carrying a bag over his shoulder, Stein was captured looking at his phone as he strolled through the store.

He was seen talking on his phone as he walked through the external nursery before grabbing a trolley and heading for the bags of sand.

Stein loaded five 50-pound bags of sand onto a cart and went back inside, where he walked the aisles for several minutes.

He eventually went to the till to pay before leaving 21 minutes later at 5.38am.

Charlise was shot in the face while on holiday with him and her mother Kallista Mutten, Stein’s then fiancée in Mount Wilson, northwest of Sydney.

The nine-year-old was shot and killed at the Riviera Ski Gardens trailer park in Lower Portland, about an hour and a half drive from the property owned by Stein’s family in Mount Wilson.

Stein had told Ms Mutten and his mother that he was going to look for Charlise on January 13, 2022, but allegedly left Mount Wilson with a barrel under a tarp in the back of the boat and towed his boat.

He went to Bunnings and bought five 20kg bags of sand, most of which was later found in the barrel containing the girl’s body, the jury was told.

With the girl’s body reportedly stuffed into the barrel on the ute, Mr Stein stopped at a 7/11 where he bought a can of Coke, Snickers and a slushie before putting more than $120 worth of petrol into a boat he dragged.

The jury was told Stein later searched Google for ‘Colo River’ and allegedly dumped the barrel on an embankment before returning to Mount Wilson at 4.22am on January 15.

The barrel was found on January 18 in foliage halfway up the dike, and a subsequent toxicology report showed that there were traces of Stein’s schizophrenia medication in Charlise’s system.

Charlise’s body was found in a fetal position, upside down in the barrel, weighted with sand. Her body was wrapped in bags and a tarp and tied with tape.

During the trial, the jury was told that after the shooting on the evening of January 13, 2022, Stein drove around Sydney for hours, carrying Charlise’s body in a barrel on his back until the early hours of the next morning.

Crown prosecutor Ken McKay told the jury that when police later recovered the barrel containing Charlise’s body near the Colo River near the NSW Blue Mountains, it contained 99kg of sand.

The jury was told Stein later searched Google for ‘Colo River’ and allegedly dumped the barrel on an embankment before returning to Mount Wilson at 4.22am on January 15.

When his mother asked him why he was driving around Sydney for hours, Stein said he “f**king panicked”

On Wednesday morning Stein blinked rapidly and scratched his beard as the jury delivered its guilty verdict at 10:15 a.m., meaning he could spend life behind bars.

At his trial, Stein pleaded not guilty to Charlise’s murder, lying that it was instead Mrs Mutten, 40, who shot her daughter in prison. N.S.W Blue mountains.

The jury deliberated for 35 hours over eight days after retiring from a month-long trial on Thursday, June 6, reaching a verdict at the start of the ninth day.

Seven minutes after the jury’s male foreman read the guilty verdict, Judge Helen Wilson formally convicted Stein of Charlise’s murder.

Stein, dressed in the same gray suit he had worn during the trial, as well as a cream-colored shirt and navy blue tie, appeared impassive except for a slight pink color to his face.

He claimed Ms Mutten tricked him into driving around with the child’s body in a barrel in the back of his car before he was forced to throw it away on the banks of the Colo River.

But the jury didn’t believe him.

Stein was also charged with disturbing a corpse. He admitted at the trial that he had disposed of Charlise’s body.

Closing submissions before retirement earlier this month, the jury was told that a core issue in the murder case was not how the schoolgirl died, but who pulled the trigger.

Stein had claimed that after Mrs. Mutten shot her daughter, she secretly placed Charlise’s body in the barrel and strapped it to the back of his body without his knowledge.

Mrs Mutten denied any involvement in her daughter’s death and burst into tears when confronted with the accusation in court.

Many of the facts of the case were not in dispute, including that Charlise died from gunshot wounds she suffered on or near a Mount Wilson property owned by Stein’s mother, the jury heard.

Judge Wilson had told jurors that if they found there was a reasonable possibility that Mrs. Mutten shot her own daughter, they should find Stein not guilty.

“The Crown has no evidence that anyone saw the suspect shoot Charlise,” she said.

Stein appeared as the only defense witness in the trial and spent two days going over his version of events.

At the time of her death, Charlise was visiting her mother and Stein from Queensland, where she lived with her grandparents.

Charlise stayed at Stein’s mother’s house in Sydney, then with Mrs Mutten and Stein – who were engaged at the time, with the little girl calling the accused ‘daddy’.

They split their time between Wildenstein and a cabin at the Riviera Ski Gardens in Lower Portland.

Charlise spent the night of January 11 alone with Stein at Mount Wilson, while her mother remained in the cabin, and that’s when prosecutors alleged he killed her.

Crown prosecutor Ken McKay SC said the jury could find that Stein drugged and shot Charlise dead.

An autopsy revealed that Charlise had traces of the antipsychotic prescription drug Quetiapine – also known as Seroquel – in her system. Stein used the drug for his schizophrenia.

The jury heard that an adult dose would have a profound calming effect on a child, but it was difficult to tell how much Charlise had received.

Mr McKay said one possible motive was that Stein killed Charlise when she fell ill after he gave her the drug.

Stein denied giving Charlise the medication and said he agreed to a plan to cover up the murder, including 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 became aware that Charlise’s body was in a barrel on the back of his pants, he panicked and eventually threw it away.

Stein will be sentenced on August 23.