May 13th 2024.
The tragic death of nine-year-old Charlise Mutten has left the community in shock as a jury begins to hear evidence in her murder trial. Charlise's body was found in a barrel, bearing two gunshot wounds, and the accused, Justin Laurens Stein, has made explosive claims that it was actually Charlise's own mother, Kallista Mutten, who pulled the trigger.
The trial began on a Monday, with Stein revealing that he and Ms. Mutten were in a romantic relationship after meeting in prison. Ms. Mutten is expected to be among the many witnesses who will give their accounts in the trial, starting on Tuesday. The news of this trial comes in the midst of another headline, announcing the permanent closure of the famous Sydney restaurant, Tetsuya's.
Charlise had been reported missing by her mother on January 14, 2022, while visiting Stein and Ms. Mutten from her home in Tweed Heads, where she lived with her grandparents. The trio had been spending their time between a property in the Blue Mountains and a caravan in the Riverview Ski Park, roughly an hour-and-a-half away. On the evening of January 12, Stein took Charlise back to the Blue Mountains property, while Ms. Mutten stayed at the caravan, according to prosecutors' statements.
CCTV footage captured Stein at a BP service station in Marsden Park the following day, towing a boat with his Holden Colorado ute. In the back of the vehicle, there was allegedly a barrel containing Charlise's lifeless body. Prosecutors claim that Stein had also purchased five 20 kg bags of sand from Bunnings, which were added to the barrel to weigh it down before being dumped in the water. However, the barrel ended up being found wedged in a tree near the Colo River on January 18, four days after Charlise was reported missing. An autopsy revealed that she had been shot once in the head and once in the lower back.
During the initial police interviews on January 14, while Charlise was still missing, Stein had claimed that he also told Ms. Mutten that Charlise may have been taken by people from his criminal past. However, he later changed his story and confessed to a corrections officer that it was Ms. Mutten who had shot Charlise, and he had helped dispose of the body. Stein's lawyer, Carolyn Davenport SC, argued that her client changed his statement because he had initially been trying to protect Ms. Mutten.
Davenport further explained that on the night of the incident, Stein had been inside a shed on the Blue Mountains property when he heard a gunshot. He then rushed outside to find Ms. Mutten firing a second shot into her daughter. According to Davenport, evidence would show that it was Ms. Mutten who had a motive to commit the murder, rather than Stein. The trial is expected to last for six weeks, where the truth behind Charlise's tragic death will finally be revealed.
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