Kallista Mutten wiped her eyes with a tissue during her evidence on Monday at the NSW Supreme Court trial of her ex-partner Justin Laurens Stein,who has pleaded not guilty to Charlise’s murder.
Kallista Mutten leaves the NSW Supreme Court on Monday.Dion Georgopoulos
Stein,33,argues he saw,but admits he disposed of the body which was found with two gunshot wounds in a barrel by the Colo River on January 18,2022.
Charlise,who lived with her grandparents in Tweed Heads,had been visiting Stein and her mother for the school holidays.
Prosecutors allege Stein killed Charlise between 7.16pm on January 11 and 10.06am on January 12 at his family’s estate in Mount Wilson,then fed his partner lies that her daughter was missing.
Justin Stein is on trial accused of murdering his fiancee’s daughter Charlise Mutten.Supplied
Stein left Charlise in ‘safe hands’
Kallista Mutten said she was with Charlise and Stein at his caravan in Lower Portland on January 11 when he said he had to go to the Mount Wilson home to “let an auctioneer lady in” for his mother.
“Charlise had finished swimming in the pool,and she said,‘Can I go with Daddy,Mum?’” she said.
“I said,‘Yes,of course.’”
She said Stein messaged her that night that they were “safe and sound” and he was “cooking up some chicken” while Charlise watched TV and played with balloons,and the next morning said he was “waiting on the auctioneer lady to turn up” and that Charlise had been sick and vomited.
“Am literally about to walk out the door. Charsey is staying put in bed. She’s wrecked,and already fallen back to sleep,” Stein said in a text at 10.06am on January 12.
Mutten said Stein told her the auctioneer would keep an eye on Charlise,as she had kids herself,was “practically like a nurse,so she’s in safe hands”,and was “happy to mind her,even overnight”.
She said she thought Stein was “organising us to elope”,and he picked her up from the caravan park,they travelled into the city to buy the drug ice,injected it in a park,had sex and returned to the caravan park before arriving at the Mount Wilson home at about 8pm or 9pm to find no lights on.
She said Stein told her he was “a bit worried,so he was going to go and look around the property”.
Mutten said she was “trying to be rational” about where her daughter might have been,including searching a safe room at the home and calling local hospitals in case Charlise had been taken there.
‘Things weren’t adding up’
The court heard Mutten went through Stein’s phone that night,which led her to believe he was cheating. In the early hours of January 13 she twice left the home in his red ute.
She said she messaged Stein saying “I just want my daughter” and that she was “calling the police soon” because she felt “things weren’t adding up”.
Mutten said when she returned to the property,Stein “grabbed me and pushed me to the ground”,accused her of stealing and said,“you’re going to get in trouble for this”.
Kallista Mutten (left) gave evidence that she last saw her daughter when the girl left a caravan park with Justin Stein.Dion Georgopoulos
She claimed she hid in bushland before Stein found her and smashed her phone,then told her he had called his mother who said “the auctioneer lady is not the auctioneer lady”.
“He thinks that his ex-affiliations have taken her,kidnapped her,” Mutten said she was told. Through tears,she said Stein told her that if she called the police,“they’ll kill her[Charlise]”.
Mutten gave evidence that consuming ice “numbs” her reality.
“Maybe if I hadn’t been on drugs,I might have put the pieces together,” she said.
Justin Stein allegedly drove his red ute across Sydney with the body of Charlise Mutten in a barrel in the tray.NSW Police
Stein towed boat to ‘get rid of evidence’
Mutten said Stein told her “he’s going to go to war” to find Charlise and left the property on the afternoon of January 13 in his ute,towing a boat.
Asked by Crown prosecutor Ken McKay,SC,if the couple had any conversation about the boat,Mutten said Stein said:“If shit goes down and people get hurt or anything happens,he’s going to probably try to get rid of some evidence”.
She said Stein messaged her that night that he was “scoping out a property … looking through the windows” with a friend and getting ready to “barge in”.
In the early hours of January 14,the court heard Mutten messaged Stein “please get our baby back” and told friends “Charlise has been kidnapped”.
Mutten said Stein returned to the property without Charlise,and said “it’s not them,call the police in the morning”.
She said she had been overwhelmed and “it was hitting home that she wasn’t coming back”.
Mutten reported her daughter missing about 8.15am on January 14. She burst into tears in court when she recalled the moment police told her on January 18 that Charlise’s body had been found in a barrel.
The defence claims Stein told various stories “to protect Kallista”,and that he saw her shoot Charlise on the night of January 12.
The trial continues before Justice Helen Wilson.
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