A judge has sentenced Charlise Mutten’s killer, Justin Stein, to life in prison without parole after he shot the little girl in the face and dumped her body in a barrel.
Judge Helen Wilson delivered the verdict at the Supreme Court of New South Wales in Sydney, where a thin and nervous-looking Stein appeared in person.
Judge Wilson said 33-year-old Stein was “completely without remorse” and “without humanity or morals”.
She said the shooting, which took place in January 2022 at Stein’s lavish family home in the Blue Mountains, was “unspeakably brutal and murderous”.
“These were intentional acts and the second shot was an execution shot. He committed these acts with the intent to kill her,” she said.
“He tried to blame Charlise’s mother for his own indecent behavior.
“Charlise was not just a child; at nine years and five months old, she was a very young child.”
“Charlise called the perpetrator ‘Daddy’. This crime represents a blatant breach of trust.”
Justin Stein is convicted of murdering nine-year-old Charlise Mutten (above in December 2021, on her last Christmas) and then dumping her body in a barrel
Justin Stein shot Charlise Mutten in the face after drugging her and then dumped her body in a barrel in the bush
Charlise was murdered after being pumped full of Stein’s schizophrenia medication.
The court concluded that an adult dose of the drug would have a strong sedative effect on children.
“She must have been in a state of extreme drowsiness and even less able to defend herself and escape danger,” said Judge Wilson.
Judge Wilson called Stein’s allegedly tearful account of Charlise’s death during the trial “false” and said the tissue he used was dry.
“From where I was sitting, I could clearly see that his eyes were completely dry and he did not shed a single tear,” Judge Wilson said disgustedly.
Charlise had visited 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 on a property in the Blue Mountains while her mother stayed in a caravan about 90 minutes’ drive away.
The same day Charlise’s body was found, investigators charged Stein with murder after using his phone’s location data to determine where the barrel had been dropped.
Judge Wilson said Stein probably shot the girl once in the back as she tried to escape before walking toward her and firing another shot directly into her head.
“This was a shockingly cruel crime,” Ms Wilson said.
“The perpetrator approached Charlise and fired the second shot at close range.
“He shot Charlise twice with a stolen gun,” Judge Wilson said.
“It was not survivable and it should not be.”
Justin Stein tried to blame Kallista Mutten (above with Charlise, on Christmas 2021) for the murder of her own daughter while under the influence of drugs
Stein’s lawyer, Carolyn Davenport SC, said it would be a “very cruel and unusual punishment” to send a man of Stein’s age to prison for the rest of his life.
“There was no known motive,” she said.
Charlise’s mother, Kallista Mutten, broke down in tears during a recent hearing, telling her former fiancé, “I hate myself for trusting you.”
Ms Mutten read a victim’s statement via audio-video link.
With a trembling voice, Mrs Mutten said to Stein: “(Charlise) simply wished that you were her father. I just hate myself for being so wrong about you.”
“I have to live with the fact that I trusted someone and because of that trust I put my daughter in danger.”
Stein blinked rapidly and then closed his eyes for a few seconds. His legs trembled restlessly as he listened to the statements of Mrs. Mutten and her father.
“I won’t see her grow up, have her first boyfriend and get married,” said Charlise’s mother.
“More than anything, I miss being Charlise’s mom and hearing her say ‘I love you.'”
“Charlise was my biggest fan and always said I was the best mom in the world.”
Ms Mutten said that since her murder, Charlise had been harassed in public, verbally abused by people on public transport and that she had been so persecuted by the media that she could no longer go outside.
Only Charlise’s grandfather Clinton Mutten (above), who was the legal guardian of the nine-year-old together with his wife Deborah, appeared at Justin Stein’s sentencing
Justin Stein buys sand at Bunnings to weigh down the barrel in which he placed Charlise’s body
In this barrel (above, in situ, with the remains of the little girl inside) detectives found Charlie’s body, which Stein had disposed of on the banks of the Colo River.
She said the last time she saw Charlise, she told her she was pregnant and Charlise was looking forward to becoming an older sister
Ms Mutten added: “My life will never be the same again.”
She said Charlise “loved being a nerd and reading books.”
A week after the shooting, detectives found Charlise’s 73-pound body wrapped in a tarp and bound with duct tape, head first in an industrial barrel on the banks of the Colo River.
During a five-week trial in May and June, Stein attempted to blame Charlise’s mother, who was then a heavy intravenous methamphetamine user, for her own daughter’s murder.
The court heard that Kallista injected herself with massive amounts of ice – “17 points a day” – and suffered psychotic episodes during which she lay on the floor babbling and speaking incoherently.
But in a traumatic court testimony, she said she was not with Stein or Charlise the night the murder happened and believed his story that another woman was looking after her daughter.
On June 19, a jury found Justin Stein guilty of Charlise’s murder after 35 hours of deliberation over eight days.
Stein had already admitted to disposing of the body after police were shown CCTV footage showing him driving the tarpaulin-covered barrel through Sydney, collecting sand from Bunnings to weigh it down and then taking it to the river bank 100 kilometres north-west of Sydney.
Stein had claimed that after he shot her daughter, Ms. Mutten secretly placed Charlise’s body in the barrel and secured it to the back of his pickup truck without his knowledge.
But the jury didn’t believe him.
Stone drives out of the Lane Cove Tunnel, the barrel in the background is covered with a blue tarpaulin
Charlise Mutten at school in 2021, the last year of her short life, and the barrel she was placed in when Stein disposed of her body in January 2022
Ms Mutten denied any involvement in her daughter’s death and burst into tears when confronted with the accusation in court.
Stein appeared as the only witness for the defense in the trial and presented his version of events over two days.
Prosecutor Ken McKay said Stein gave Charlise his schizophrenic drug quetiapine “intentionally or … inadvertently”.
Stein denied giving Charlise the drug and said he was part of a plan by Charlie’s mother to cover up the murder, which included lying to police by claiming to have left the girl in the care of a fictitious woman who was appraising at the Mount Wilson estate.
