Life in prison for man who shot Charlise, then dumped her body in a barrel
The man who fatally shot schoolgirl Charlise Mutten and dumped her body in a barrel has been sentenced to life in prison for the “shockingly callous crime”.
Justin Stein was found guilty of murder in June, despite his claims it was the girlās mother Kallista Mutten ā with whom he was in a relationship ā who shot the nine-year-old.
The 33-year-old was sentenced in the NSW Supreme Court on Monday to the maximum sentence of life in prison without parole.
Police located Charliseās body on January 18, 2022, near the Colo River, northwest of Sydney, with gunshot wounds to her face and lower back.
In handing down the sentence, Justice Helen Wilson said Stein likely shot the girl once in the back while she was trying to flee, before approaching her and firing another shot directly into her head.
āThis was a shockingly callous crime,ā Ms Wilson said.
āThe offender approached Charlise and discharged the second shot at close range.
You might like
āIt was not survivable and was not intended to be.ā
Justice Wilson said during the trial she had witnessed Stein pretending to cry as he gave a āwholly false accountā of Charliseās death.
āHis voice began to shake and then to break, he reached for a tissue and dabbed at his eyes,ā the judgen said.
āI could see very clearly that despite the offenderās presentation of distress, he was completely dry-eyed and did not shed a single tear.ā
Justice Wilson told the court Steinās evidence could have been called ātheatreā if it were not so serious, adding it pointed to his ācomplete lack of remorseā.
Crown prosecutor Ken McKay SC told the court during a sentence hearing on Friday that due to the extreme nature of the crime, the only appropriate sentence for Stein was life in prison.
Stay informed, daily
āHe went to great lengths to avoid being held responsible for his actions,ā Mr McKay said.
Steinās lawyer, Carolyn Davenport SC, said it would be āvery cruel and unusual punishmentā to send a man of Steinās age to prison for the rest of his life.
āThere was no motive that we know of,ā she said.
Charlise had been visiting her mother and Stein for Christmas from the Gold Coast, where she lived with her grandparents.
She spent the night of January 11 alone with Stein at a property in the Blue Mountains, while her mother stayed at a caravan about a 90-minute drive away.
Toxicology results revealed Charlise had traces in her body of the anti-psychotic drug Seroquel, for which Stein had a prescription to treat schizophrenia.
An adult dose of the drug would have a profound sedating effect on a child, the court heard.
The same day Charliseās body was found, investigators charged Stein with her murder after using location data from his phone to pinpoint where the barrel was dropped.
He would later admit dumping the body but claimed he panicked after discovering it on the back of his ute.
Want to see more stories from InDaily Qld in your Google search results?
- Click here to set InDaily Qld as a preferred source.
- Tick the box next to "InDaily Qld". That's it.
