WARNING: Disturbing Content
The man accused of shooting schoolgirl Charlise Mutten twice, in the head and side of her body, before dumping the body in a barrel claims the girl’s mother is responsible for her death, a jury has been told.
Justin Laurens Stein, 33. is facing a trial in the NSW Supreme Court at Parramatta after pleading not guilty to murder.
He is accused of murdering the daughter of his former partner, Kallista Mutten, at a property owned by his parents, and dumping her body in a plastic barrel in the Colo River area.
In delivering her opening statement on Monday, his defence barrister, Carolyn Davenport SC, told the jury they will have a ‘very different view of Kallista Mutten’ after they receive the evidence.
Describing her as an ice user ‘since her early 20s’, Ms Davenport told the jury her client told ‘various versions’ of what happened to the child to protect his former partner.
‘Charlise was killed…by her mother…near a chicken shed on the property,’ Ms Davenport told the jury.
‘He didn’t know what happened to the child, he disposed of the body…he didn’t put the body in the barrel but he did dispose of it.’
The man accused of shooting schoolgirl Charlise Mutten (pictured), the daughter of his ex -partner, has claimed she was actually killed by her mother
She urged the jury to ‘listen closely’ to the evidence about the last sighting of Charlise.
The jury was told Ms Mutten will be a witness in the trial.
Earlier, the court heard claims from the Crown that Mr Stein pretended he was out searching for the nine-year-old while he was trying to dispose of the girl’s body in January 2022.
Crown prosecutor Ken McKay SC told the jury, which consists of five women and 10 men, that the day after Charlise died Mr Stein drove his Holden Colorado ute to Bunnings where he bought five 20kg bags of sand.
With the girl’s body allegedly stuffed in a barrel at the back of the ute and hidden under a tarp, Mr McKay told the jury Mr Stein stopped in at a 7/11 where he bought a can of coke, snickers and slushie before putting more than $120 of petrol in a boat he was trailing.
Mr Stein stood in the dock on Monday, wearing a navy suit, with a white button-up shirt and navy tie, when he formally pleaded not guilty to the charge.
The nine-year-old’s body was found with gunshot wounds to her head and back in bushland near the Colo River in NSW‘s Central Tablelands in January 2022.
Mr McKay told the jury Charlise had been visiting her mother and Mr Stein over the Christmas and New Year period from December 2021 to January 2022.
Mr Stein met Ms Mutten while they were both serving separate prison sentences and their relationship continued once they were released.
His defence barrister in opening statement describing her mother as an ice user who killed the daughter and that Stein only disposed of the body
Mr McKay told the court Mr Stein and Ms Mutten ‘broke into a house at Mount Wilson’ in August 2022 and stole two firearms, one of which he said is ‘of importance in the case’.
Charlise was living with her grandparents in Tweed Heads at the time, but spent almost a month with her mother and Mr Stein from December 21, who the jury was told was being treated for schizophrenia and a heroin addiction at the time.
The jury was told Charlise had spent her time in Sydney split between Mr Stein’s family property at Mount Wilson, where she was allegedly shot and killed, and at a caravan park named the Riviera Ski Gardens in Lower Portland, about 1.5 hours away.
On January 11, 2022, Mr McKay told the jury Charlise travelled back to Mount Wilson from the caravan park with Mr Stein, while Ms Mutten stayed behind.
The jury was told Mr Stein messaged his partner the following morning on January 12 saying Charlise was feeling ‘wrecked’ and was staying in bed.
Mr McKay told the jury Mr Stein had lied to Ms Mutten, telling her a woman from an auction company would take care of Charlise while he was out.
But later he told Ms Mutten the girl may have been taken by ‘criminal associates’ from his past.
The jury was told Mr Stein later told a corrective services officer he didn’t kill Charlise, but was ‘in the vicinity when Kallista Mutten shot and killed the girl,’ Mr McKay said.
The nine-year-old was visiting her mother on school holidays when she was killed and was missing for three days
The crown prosecutor told the court Mr Stein had told Ms Mutten and his mother he was out looking for Charlise on Thursday January 13, when he had left about 4pm with a barrel under a tarp in the back of the ute, as well as towing his boat.
He then went to Bunnings and bought the sand.
After getting his snacks and fuelling up his boat, Mr Stein then travelled to Rose Bay Wharf, before travelling to Five Dock Wharf in Sydney, the jury was told.
‘The crown case will be that Mr Stein has told Kallista the daughter is missing with someone else, that he’d driven off from the property at Mt Wilson to look for her, whereas he was looking, with the barrel of the body in the ute of his car, to dispose of the body,’ Mr McKay said.
‘But he said to Kallista and his mother he was looking for, and trying to save, Charlise.’
The jury was told Mr Stein later Google searched ‘Colo River’ and allegedly dumped the barrel down an embankment before returning to Mount Wilson at 4.22am on January 15.
The crown prosecutor told the court Mr Stein had told Ms Mutten and his mother he was out looking for Charlise but was purchasing sand to weigh her body down
The barrel was found on January 18 buried within some foliage partway down the embankment.
After finding the barrel, which contained Charlise’s body, the jury was told police also found 99kg worth of sand.
A toxicology report showed Charlise had tested positive for Mr Stein’s schizophrenia medication.
‘The crown case is during that period the accused acted in a way where he was trying to convince Kallista Mutten and his mother thatn Charlise was taken by other people and he was in effect trying to rescue her,’ Mr McKay told the jury.
But he told the jury that Mr Stein allegedly new Charlise had died and knew she was in the barrel.
The court was told Ms Mutton had messaged Mr Stein and multiple other people ‘consistent with her belief the child was missing’ for two days before calling the police at 8.15am on January 14.
The trial, which is before Justice Helen Wilson and is expected to run for six weeks, continues.