The person accused of murdering a schoolgirl has been in confronted in court docket and informed: ‘You shot Charlise Mutten twice.’
Justin Stein, 34, was underneath cross-examination by the prosecution for a second day whereas on trial for the nine-year-old’s alleged homicide within the NSW Blue Mountains in January, 2022.
However Stein dismissed the accusation from the witness stand and calmly replied: ‘I perceive that, however no, I by no means touched her.’ Requested a second time, Mr Stein stated ‘I did not shoot her.’
He additionally denied the accusation he ‘eliminated no matter proof’ from the crime scene.
Crown prosecutor Ken McKay SC stated Stein had been assured in cellphone calls together with his mom Annemie Stein that police ‘had no crime scene’.
However Stein denied that declare too.
Now in its fourth week within the NSW Supreme Court docket at Parramatta, the trial has heard the accused give proof from the witness field.
Stein denies murdering Charlise, however admits disposing of her physique.
Prosecutors allege Stein positioned the kid’s physique in a plastic barrel and dumped it 50km away on the banks of the Colo River.
Mr McKay requested Stein about the truth that forensic examiners discovered at Charlise’s submit mortem that she was clothed, however carrying no underpants.
‘Are you aware if something occurred to her underpants?’ Mr McKay requested Stein replied, ‘No, I’ve data.’
On Tuesday, the court docket heard that Charlise’s mom, Kallista Mutten, made cellphone calls to a few hospitals at Lithgow and within the Blue Mountains, together with kids’s hospitals.
Detective Sergeant Bradley Gardiner had earlier testified that calls from Ms Mutten’s cell and a landline at Stein household’s Mt Wilson residence within the Blue Mountains had been made simply earlier than 9.30pm on Wednesday, January 12, 2022.
Stein claims Ms Mutten killed her personal daughter simply after 9pm that night time after which vanished with the woman’s physique.
He stated he was in a shed fixing a automotive and got here out when he heard gunshots earlier than he was ordered to discover a tarpaulin by Ms Mutten who was standing with a rifle over Charlise’s physique on the bottom.
However he stated that when he got here out once more, each the Charlise and her mom have been gone, and there was a patch lower out of the bottom.
‘So after you come out of shed, a 33.5kg little one and Kallista are gone, the firearm is gone, the grime is gone?’ requested Mr McKay, to which Stein replied: ‘Sure’.
Justin Stein was requested if he had shot Charlise Mutten within the trial on Tuesday, however stated he had not
Stein earlier testified that after the alleged capturing by Ms Mutten, he returned to his bed room at Wildenstein, wept, smoked a joint, then fell asleep.
Stein stated he did not find out about Google searches of native hospitals and Ms Mutten’s cellphone calls to them.
GPS information from that point had positioned Ms Mutten on the northern finish of Wildenstein’s patio on the rear of the home.
‘So Kallista Mutten is on the patio of the home at 9.24pm, do you settle for that?’ Mr McKay requested Stein.
‘Not solely did she do the searches, she then made the cellphone calls. 107 seconds name to Blue Mountains Hospital. A 74 second name to Lithgow Kids’s Hospital from the … landline.
‘You’d have been in your bed room in your proof? You didn’t know the place she was? The landline is a cordless cellphone? Mount Wilson may be very quiet?
‘You’re in your bed room simply having … some hashish?’
Stein insisted: ‘No I didn’t hear it.’ When McKay stated ‘I recommend that story is just not true,’ the accused responded, ‘No, that’s what occurred.’
He stated the primary time he had recognized in regards to the cellphone calls was in custody studying the police transient following his arrest.
Requested in regards to the following morning when he took off his pink Holden Colorado ute, towing a ship and with a barrel within the again, Mr Stein stated he had it had been ‘fully empty’ when he loaded it and he was unaware Charlise’s physique was inside.
He stated he hadn’t seen Ms Mutten load her daughter’s physique into the barrel earlier than he drove off.
Mr McKay: ‘You simply assumed at a while that (Kallista Mutten) has picked up a 33.5kg little one, climbed up on the ute, eliminated tarpaulin, eliminated the straps you had securing barrel?’
Mr Stein agreed.
Justin Stein is being cross-examined about his account of Charlise’s dying during which he says it was the woman’s mom Kallista Mutten (above) who shot the kid.
On Monday the court docket heard a menacing cellphone name during which Stein threatened to kill the woman’s mom, raging: ‘Guess what? I’ve obtained my f***ing gun and I’m going to kill you.’
In a second name later that morning, performed in court docket, incensed Stein warned: ‘I’ll harm you and everybody else.
‘I’ll inform the police that you just’re the one which took your daughter’.
Mr McKay questioned Stein’s earlier testimony and likewise mocked the alleged killer’s courtroom tears, suggesting he had beforehand wept whereas mendacity to police.
Charlise was visiting her mom and Stein, who was her fiance on the time, in the course of the 2021/22 faculty holidays, and frolicked in NSW between Wildenstein and Riviera Ski Gardens caravan park in Decrease Portland the place Stein owned a van.
Underneath questioning by his defence counsel on Monday Stein wept within the witness field as he claimed the schoolgirl was shot by her personal mom, and gave his account of Charlise’s ultimate moments.
Stein informed the jury in his homicide trial on the NSW Supreme Court docket in Parramatta that Ms Mutten shot her daughter within the face and again earlier than screaming at him: ‘You made me do that.’
Charlise Mutten, 9, was on vacation from her residence close to Tweed Heads when she was allegedly murdered with a shotgun wound to the pinnacle and her physique dumped in a barrel
Kallista Mutten, an ice addict, had met Justin Stein after they have been each serving jail sentences for drug-related offences and continued their relationship on launch
Stein stated he had been on his household property when he heard a shot ring out and Charlise scream his identify then cry out ‘Mummy, no’ earlier than a second shot.
‘I walked as much as the fence. That is once I noticed Charlise on the bottom. (Ms Mutten) had a rifle in her hand,’ he informed the court docket from the witness stand on Monday.
‘I stated, “What the f*** have you ever finished?” and she or he began screaming “You probably did this”. She saved screaming “You probably did this” she then screamed “You made me do that”.
‘She screamed at me to get a tarp. I stated, “No”. She then lifted up the rifle as if to shoot. I put up each fingers.’
Stein stated he then went right into a shed and located a blue tarpaulin after about 10 minutes, however when he got here out, each Ms Mutten and Charlise have been gone.
He stated he noticed a ’20cm black sq. lower out of the grime’ earlier than strolling again to the principle home.
‘I went… straight to my bed room… sitting there shaking, rolled myself a joint, broke down in tears for 10 to fifteen minutes, stopped crying, smoked that joint, fell asleep,’ he stated.
Stein admitted in court docket to taking heroin because the age of 12 and stated he had been identified with schizophrenia when he was 21.
Justin Stein is on trial accused of the homicide of Charlise Mutten. The 33-year-old has pleaded not responsible to the January 2022 capturing dying
He stated he first met Ms Mutten in jail at Kempsey on the NSW Mid North Coast and the pair had began seeing one another after they obtained out of jail.
The prosecution has alleged Stein was the ‘final individual’ to see Charlise and had the possibility to kill her between 7.16pm on January 11 and 10.06am on January 12, 2022.
However in his testimony on Monday, Stein stated the kid was shot useless on the night of January 12, by her mom.
He additionally claimed Charlise had been sick and vomiting after her mom had given the kid his schizophrenia medicine.
Stein stated that in their ‘very up and down’ relationship, Ms Mutten had continuously taken methamphetamine and ‘get very paranoid’.
‘She’d … assume persons are attempting to kill her, poison her, she’d fear about drones’ and ‘dshe was all the time paranoid that the home was bugged’.
He stated that Charlise arrived for her vacation, issues had turn out to be ‘extra risky’ between himself and Ms Mutten who ‘virtually grew to become jealous at occasions’ of the ‘good relationship’ he had with the woman.
He stated that he deliberate to finish their romance after Charlise had returned from her vacation again to Queensland, however had additionally deliberate on getting married to Ms Mutten.
He stated he ‘paid for all the things’ within the relationship from cash saved and his incapacity pension for his schizophrenia.
Throughout the Charlise’s vacation he and Ms Mutten ‘had a giant struggle she then beginning reducing herself, then threatening to finish her personal life’.
However he admitted he had additionally Googled about marriage and adoption certificates and ‘there was nonetheless a part of me that beloved her and thought she may change’.
On January 12, 2022, when the prosecution alleges Charlise was already useless, Stein stated the woman was sleeping in his ute alongside together with his searching canine, Dozer.
He admitted driving to Sydney to purchase ice and hashish with Ms Mutten, however denied having intercourse along with her at Centennial Park.
Mr Stein informed the court docket that he hadn’t recognized Charlise’s physique was within the barrel behind his ute till night time time and that when he found it there he ‘threw up’
As an alternative, informed the court docket he had been ‘strolling the canine whereas she was capturing up ice within the bogs’.
He stated the next day – two days after he is alleged to have killed Charlise and in the future after he claims Ms Mutten shot her personal daughter – he left Wildenstein believing he had an empty barrel in his ute.
‘It was fully empty,’ he informed the court docket. ‘I loaded all the things up. I used two ratchet straps.’
Stein informed the court docket it was at night time, after he had smoked hashish and purchased ice for Ms Mutten at Drummoyne boat ramp, when he lastly learnt Charlise’s physique was within the barrel on his ute.
He stated the tarpaulin over the barrel had come unfastened and after pulling over to repair it, ‘I seen the ratchet straps … have been the wrong way up,’ he informed the court docket.
‘I undid the straps … pulling it, I tipped the barrel. That’s once I noticed Charlise wrapped in a blue tarp within the barrel. I threw up.’
Stein stated that on January 14 Ms Mutten had returned to Mount Wilson and was sitting in the lounge, watching TV.
‘I began abusing her telling her [she was] a bit of s***, a putrid canine for what she did. I’ll always remember this, she smiled.’
He stated he then ‘threw’ the ice he had bought for her ‘in her face. She began capturing up.’
Underneath cross-examination, the accused was requested about his crying whereas he had testified about listening to a gunshot after which Charlise cry out his identify.
‘You have been a bit emotional,’ stated Mr McKay. ‘Took a few tissues to wipe your eyes? You’re okay to speak about Charlise being shot?’
Stein replied: I’m doing my finest.’
Mr McKay then performed a police interview with Stein, which was recorded at Penrith Police Station on the Saturday after Charlise vanished however had not but been discovered.
Within the interview, Stein tears up and asks for a tissue and cries: ‘I really feel accountable.’ In court docket on Monday he admitted telling some lies throughout that interview.
‘Once you grew to become upset you have been truly telling police issues that weren’t true?’ requested Mr McKay. ‘And on the time you grew to become upset you have been in the midst of telling lies?’.
‘Yeah,’ Stein admitted.
The prosecution urged that Mr Stein’s testimony was not true.
‘The reality was Charlise was not within the automotive with you on January 12,’ Mr McKay requested, however Stein repeatedly insisted she was ‘positively’ within the automotive.
Mr McKay additionally challenged Mr Stein’s testimony which claimed Ms Mutten had shot Charlise twice after which vanished from the property with the homicide weapon and the kid’s physique.
Mr Stein stated the firearm, a .22 calibre rifle had been in his bed room with ammunition within the wardrobe, and that Ms Mutten will need to have taken it whereas he went exterior to repair a automobile in his shed.
Mr McKay questioned Stein’s story about listening to gunshots and Charlise cry after which being informed by Ms Mutten, nonetheless armed with the gun, to get a tarpaulin for Charlise on the bottom.
‘It was very darkish the place Kallista and Charlise have been?’ stated Mr McKay.
‘You got here again and each have been gone. There was a gap within the floor? You didn’t see a spade along with her to chop gap within the floor?
‘However you go and get a tarp – each are gone and lump of grime gone?’
Stein stated that was what he had witnessed.
Charlise, 9, was allegedly shot useless on the Stein household property at Mount Wilson after which her stays place in a barrel behind Stein’s pink Holden Colorado ute and dumped on the the riverbank
‘The home was left open with this psychotic lady working round with a firearm?’ he quizzed Stein.
‘[She] had pointed the gun and threatened you, after having shot Charlise twice, but you allow the door open?
‘You don’t take into consideration locking the doorways, you don’t take into consideration ringing Triple-0?
‘You didn’t give it some thought as a result of it didn’t occur.’
Stein insisted: ‘It occurred’.
Mr McKay additionally requested Stein why he had as soon as dialled Triple-0 when Ms Mutten was psychotic on ice however he hadn’t finished the identical for Charlise when she was shot.
‘You wouldn’t know if Charlise was alive or useless,’ Mr McKay stated, to which Stein replied: ‘Laborious to inform.’
The alarm was raised when Ms Mutten referred to as Triple-0 at 8.15am on January 14, 2022 to report her daughter was lacking.
The trial earlier than Justice Helen Wilson continues.
