Charlise Mutten’s mother has broken down in a Sydney court after been accused of fatally shooting and putting her nine-year-old daughter’s body in a barrel.
Kallista Mutten is appearing as a witness at the murder trial of her former fiancé Justin Laurens Stein more than two years after the girl’s body was discovered in a barrel on the banks of the Colo River.
Justin Laurens Stein has pleaded not guilty to murdering the girl but his lawyer Caroyln Davenport SC previously told the jury he does not deny attempting to dump the body in January 2022.
Prosecutors have alleged in the NSW Supreme Court 33-year-old Mr Stein killed Charlise in the early hours of the morning on January 12, while she was staying alone with him at his family’s Mount Wilson property in the Blue Mountains.
Court adjourned early after cross-examination
Ms Davenport SC has told jurors she would argue Ms Mutten had motive to kill her own daughter.
During cross-examination, she questioned Ms Mutten about her methamphetamine use and how she admitted to police that she had been psychotic for three days when interviewed days after the alleged murder.
The court has heard that on the day it’s alleged Charlise was killed, the pair travelled to Sydney to use the drug ice in Centennial Park.
The pair returned to Mt Wilson at about 9pm when Ms Mutten sent text messages that she and Mr Stein “broke up” and that she needed somewhere to go.
During cross-examination Ms Davenport SC said to Ms Mutten, “What I suggest is in the time between when you arrived back at the house and those messages, you had in fact shot and killed your daughter”.
“Are you serious?” Ms Mutten said during her second day of evidence.
“You shot her once in the back and once in the head,” Ms Davenport replied and said that she did it near the shed.
“I didn’t even know she was shot with a gun, and I didn’t even know where she was shot, so now I know,” Ms Mutten responded.
“And Justin had seen you deliver the second shot,” Ms Davenport said.
Ms Mutten broke down in tears and the court adjourned early for morning tea.
Mother accused of putting Charlise in barrel
The two met when they were in prison, and she was pregnant with Mr Stein’s child at the time of the alleged murder.
The day before the alleged murder on January 11, the three were staying at a caravan park in Lower Portland before Mr Stein took the nine-year-old back to his family’s Mt Wilson property, at the girl’s request.
“She asked you if she could go back to Mt Wilson and you allowed it?” Ms Davenport SC asked.
“Unfortunately, yes,” Ms Mutten replied.
The jury heard that the next day Mr Stein picked up Ms Mutten from the caravan park after telling her that Charlise was feeling sick and she would stay with an auctioneer who was valuing items at the home.
Ms Davenport SC told the court that Charlise was in fact in the back of the car when she was picked up from the caravan park, travelled to Sydney with them where they took the drug ice, and then returned to Mt Wilson, all of which she denied.
Mr Stein’s lawyer said that on January 13th Mr Stein was preparing to leave the property.
“While he was in the shed packing up things, you placed Charlise’s body into a plastic container on the back of the ute,” she said.
“No,” Ms Mutten responded.
Mr Stein drove off with a boat in tow and a rusty red barrel in the ute.
“At some stage you managed to speak to him and told him that he had Charlise’s body on the back of his van,” the lawyer said.
“No,” Ms Mutten said.
‘I lied because I was trying to protect him’
Jurors have been told Charlise’s grandparents became her legal guardians when her mother was sentenced to prison for dangerous driving occasioning death.
The girl had travelled to NSW to spend time with her mother and Mr Stein during the 2021/22 summer holidays.
The court heard the pair’s relationship was rocky and that she believed Mr Stein cheated on her.
Despite that, Ms Davenport SC said Ms Mutten lied to police when they questioned her almost ten days after Charlise’s disappearance, including about drug use at Mt Wilson.
“I lied because I was trying to protect him because he told me not to tell anyone we were taking drugs,” she said.
“In my heart I really did believe that Justin had gone and looked for her,” Ms Mutten later told the court.
The mother’s evidence has concluded.
More witnesses have been called as the six-week trial continues.
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