Bombshell claims in schoolgirl murder case

Calls made by the man accused of murdering schoolgirl Charlise Mutten from prison, claiming the girl’s mother was responsible for killing her, and that the youngster’s last words were “mummy no” have been played to a jury.

According to Justin Stein’s version of events, Charlise, 9, called his name as she was running away from her mother before he heard the sound of a second gunshot.

The 33-year-old is facing a trial in the NSW Supreme Court at Parramatta after pleading not guilty to murder, but has admitted to disposing of the nine-year-old’s body.

He is accused of murdering the nine-year-old, who was the daughter of his former partner Kallista Mutten, at a property owned by his parents before dumping her body in a plastic barrel near the Colo River area.

The jury, consisting of five women and 10 men, has been told Mr Stein is accused of shooting the girl before putting her body in a plastic barrel with sand and rolling it down the embankment.

While he disputes the murder, Mr Stein’s barrister Carolyn Davenport SC told the jury her client admits to disposing of Charlise’s body.

Phone calls recorded while Mr Stein was in prison were played to the jury on Tuesday, where he was heard warning his mother he couldn’t tell her “everything over the phone”.

In the first phone call, which took place on the morning on February 5, 2022, he told Annemie Stein police had approached him asking for where the murder weapon was and where Charlise was killed.

“They don’t even know anything,” he claimed in the recording, which was played to the jury.

Annemie tells her son “No s**t, but she wasn’t killed at Mount Wilson”, to which Mr Stein responds with “I know”.

The mother continues: “But they alleged that it was”.

“Alleged doesn’t mean s**t, all it means is that I’m going to beat the murder charge,” Mr Stein replies.

Another call is played to the jury from February 10, 2022, where Mr Stein says Ms Mutten is “going to get charged for everything”.

He doubles down that “it’s the truth”, telling his mother the police have “nothing” and can’t “pin” him for the murder but he “saw it” happen.

CLAIMS ABOUT THE BARREL

“But then why were you travelling with the barrel?” his mother asks in the recording.

He responds: “Well, I didn’t even know, Kallista put it on the back of the ute”.

Mr Stein claims he thought the barrel was in his car so he could do some work on another property.

In a third call on February 12, 2022, he repeats the claims about Ms Mutten, telling Annemie he “didn’t even think of it” when his former partner put the barrel on the back of the ute.

“I’m literally at Bunnings and I get a phone call saying ‘you’ve got Charlise with you’, and I went ‘what’,” the jury heard Mr Stein say in the third phone call.

“Yeah...I was driving around with a f**king kid on the back of my ute.”

The jury later heard the phone call Mr Stein refers to while at Bunnings was an outgoing call from his phone to Ms Mutten.

Annemie then asks why Mr Stein drove around different areas of Sydney for five hours.

He claims he was driving around because he “f**king panicked”.

His mother asks again if Charlise was killed at the Mount Wilson property and Mr Stein tells him she was, but “not on the property”, on the nearby crown land.

“Behind the shed on the fire break...I’m guessing she ran down to me to the shed because the last thing she screamed was my name and then you heard ‘Mummy no’ and then the second gunshot,” Mr Stein said.

In the recording he tells his mother about Ms Mutten: “I don’t want contact, I want to cut her f**king head off”.

The court was told police spoke with Annemie on February 17, when she was shown photographs of the firearms discovered near a Mount Wilson fire trail.

The firearms were identified as those stolen by Mr Stein and Ms Mutten during a break-and-enter at another Mount Wilson property in August 2021. The jury was earlier showed footage of the break-and-enter.

In a prison call from Mr Stein on March 21, 2022, he asks his mother if she could “do something” for him.

“I need you to retrieve some stuff in the mountains,” he asks his mother in the call.

Without being told what the “stuff” was, his mother responds: “I think they (police) found them”.

Mr Stein told his mother he had “borrowed certain things” from a friend to “take care” of some drones, before he “kind of dumped them in the bush”.

Annemie told her son she had been shown photographs, but when he asked what she was shown, she said: “Well I’m not going to say over the phone, am I?”

“NOT GOING DOWN FOR THAT B***H”

Corrective Services NSW Officer Stacy Sweeney took to the witness stand earlier on Tuesday where she told the jury she interviewed Mr Stein the day after he was charged with murder.

When asked what had happened, Mr Stein told Ms Sweeney Charlise’s “mum shot her twice”.

He told Ms Sweeney the gun had been stolen by Ms Mutten from another property.

The jury heard Mr Stein said he kept having flashbacks, and told Ms Sweeney he “wasn’t going down for that b***h”.

In an interview with another Corrective Services officer, Ryan Taylor, the jury heard Mr Stein was looking forward to “clearing my name in court”.

He said he had been having “flashbacks” to witnessing a murder and again said he “didn’t pull the trigger”.

TRACKING MR STEIN’S PHONE

Earlier on Tuesday the jury heard police had tracked Mr Stein’s phone location to an area along the Colo River on January 18, 2022, with a crane needed to safely recover the barrel.

Crown prosecutor Ken McKay SC asked Detective Sergeant Bradley Gardiner whether police were aware Charlise had two gunshot wounds - to her lower back and face - when her body was recovered.

“No,” he responded.

At about 8pm that evening, Sergeant Gardiner and other police attended Riley St at Surry Hills in Sydney where Mr Stein was living at the time.

When he entered the property the jury heard Sergeant Gardiner told Mr Stein: “I am Detective Senior Constable Gardiner from the Homicide Squad, you are under arrest for the murder of Charlise Mutten, you do not have to say or do anything unless you wish to do so”.

Mr Stein was taken to a police station where he was told Charlise’s remains were found near the Colo River. The officer explained to Mr Stein that police tracked him travelling along Lower Colo Rd before he stopped.

“I sent police to that location where we found a barrel with human remains,” the jury heard Sergeant Gardiner told the accused.

He was then charged with murder.

The girl was visiting her mother and Mr Stein during the school holidays, and 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, crown prosecutor Ken McKay SC told the jury Charlise was to Mount Wilson from the caravan park with Mr Stein, while Ms Mutten stayed behind.

Mr McKay alleges Mr Stein was the “last person” to see Charlise and had the opportunity to her between 7.16pm on January 11 and 10.06am on January 12.

Charlise’s body was found in a barrel on an embankment near the Colo River four days after her mother reported her missing.

After his arrest in January 2022, Mr Stein denied killing Charlise in an interview with a Corrective Services officer but said he was “in the vicinity when Kallista Mutten shot and killed the girl,” the jury heard.

A toxicology report showed Charlise had tested positive for Mr Stein’s schizophrenia medication.

The trial continues before Justice Helen Wilson.