The mother of slain schoolgirl Charlise Mutten was three to four months pregnant when her fiancé allegedly shot her daughter in the face, his murder trial was told.
Kallista Mutten was ’12 to 16 weeks pregnant’ and suicidal when she was admitted to Blue Mountains Memorial Hospital on January 14, 2022, just two days after Charlise, 9, was reported missing to police.
Psychiatrist Dr Pauline Byrne told NSW Supreme Court in Parramatta that she attended Ms Mutten that afternoon who was ‘distressed [and] overwhelmed’.
Ms Mutten had told medical staff about her pregnancy and reported ‘lower abdominal pain’.
But she said the ’emergency department … assessed (her) and there was a decision she didn’t require a medical admission’.
Ms Mutten then ‘requested to see mental health’ and was admitted ‘as a voluntary patient’, Dr Byrne told the court on Wednesday.
It was not made clear in court what subsequently happened with her pregnancy.
Kallista Mutten (above at court on Tuesday) was 12 – 16 weeks pregnant with Justin Stein’s child when he allegedly murdered her nine-year-old daughter Charlise
Kallista was engaged to Justin Stein and pregnant with his child when Charlise, her nine-year-old daughter, vanished and the child’s remains were found in a barrel just days later
Dr Byrne agreed that Ms Mutten’s suicidal ideation related to her daughter Charlise, and that ‘If something happened, I will do something’.
Dr Byrne was giving evidence in the third week of the trial of Justin Stein, 33, who has pleaded not guilty to murdering Charlise, but admits disposing of her body.
He is accused of murdering Charlise at his family’s luxury property, Wildenstein, owned by his mother in Mount Wilson in the NSW Blue Mountains.
Stein is then alleged to have concealed the child’s body in a plastic barrel and dumped it 50km away on the banks of the Colo River.
The girl was visiting her mother during the school holidays, and spent her time in NSW between Wildenstein and Riviera Ski Gardens caravan park in Lower Portland where Stein owned a van.
Dr Byrne said there was no apparent psychosis in Ms Mutten but she was ‘confused about her situation … about a number of factors.
‘She didn’t have phone, wallet, ID, was unable to contact family or her partner.’
The day after being told her daughter’s body had been found and Stein had been charged with murder, Ms Mutten was discharged from hospital.
But Dr Byrne said Ms Mutten was ‘more distressed … tearful, having trouble speaking at times, because she was sobbing.’
Under cross-examination by Stein’s barrister, Carolyn Davenport SC, Dr Byrne agreed that using methylamphetamine could cause temporary psychosis and that Ms Mutten had ‘indicated she use drugs in the week prior to her admission’.
Kallista Mutten’s hospital health records included an entry that she admitted being in a violent domestic relationship in the past, ‘[but] denies any DV from Justin’.
On the day Ms Mutten was admitted to hospital, Stein attended Penrith police station, where officers seized his mobile phone, clothing, a Van bag with Bunnings receipt inside, and took DNA swabs of his hands and the inside of his cheek.
Kallista Mutten (above) when 12-16 weeks pregnant with Justin Stein’s child on the day she reported Charlise, 9, missing and was admitted to hospital with ‘abdominal pain’
Kallista Mutten on Tuesday after leaving the courtroom where she was grilled by Justin Stein’s lawyer and broke down when asked directly whether she had shot her own daughter
Charlise Mutten’s mother was accused in court of killing her daughter Charlise (above) behind a chicken shed
During a cigarette break outside with two detectives, who told him they were ‘concerned about the inconsistencies, he said he hadn’t been entirely truthful about what had happened,’ Detective Sergeant John Lothian told the court.
Stein was taken back in for a second interview, and then arrested, although he was released from police custody in the early hours of January 15, 2022.
Two days later, using co-ordinates police allege came from Stein’s phone, they went to the Colo River and recovered the barrel with Charlise’s body inside on January 18.
Earlier in the week, the jury heard Ms Mutten’s testimony that she and Stein had driven to Sydney to buy meth then had sex in Centennial Park, allegedly on the day Charlise was shot.
Under cross examination, when Ms Mutten was asked if she had continued to take ice despite being pregnant, she replied: ‘A few occasions.’
When asked if that was with ‘no concern about the effect on her unborn child’, she replied: ‘You could say that, yes.’
Ms Mutten also admitted Charlise’s father had been an ice user, and she continued to take the drug despite her daughter’s visit during the 2022 summer school holidays.
She denied she and Charlise were not getting along in the days before her death, or that she had been told to leave the Stein’s Mount Wilson property.
‘I chose to leave because I didn’t want to be there any more,’ she said.
‘Yeah, I was very hormonal, I was pregnant. Yeah, I was using, yeah. My emotions were very strong at the time.’
On Tuesday, Ms Mutten broke down in the witness box and fled the courtroom after Ms Davenport accused her of killing Charlise.
Kallista Mutten was grilled by her ex-fiance Justin Stein’s lawyer on Tuesday about her excessive methamphetamine use, including while pregnant with his child.
But at about 11.15am, Carolyn Davenport SC put it to her: ‘You shot and killed your daughter’, to which Ms Mutten replied, ‘Are you serious?’
She then burst into tears, crying out ‘I didn’t even know where she was shot’ before Ms Davenport added that Stein ‘had seen you deliver the second shot’.
Ms Mutten then ran from the courtroom after being excused from the witness box while the jury was also temporarily sent out.
Wearing a black top, black skirt and boots, her long blonde hair pinned back off her face, Ms Mutten looked composed but flushed when she returned to the witness box.
Ms Davenport resumed her cross-examination, asking Ms Mutten if Charlise liked chickens and had visited the chicken shed on the Stein property in the evening.
Ms Davenport: ‘I want to suggest you followed Charlise behind the shed and that’s where you shot her … and Justin came down when you shot her a second time, in the face?’
Ms Mutten said ‘no’ to both suggestions. She agreed that Stein had taught her how to load and shoot with the guns the couple had stolen from a neighbour’s property.
Kallista Mutten (pictured outside court on Monday) told a jury Stein told her that ‘kidnappers would kill her daughter’ if she called police
Kallista Stein (centre) leaves Parramatta court on Monday flanked by supporters who were there to accompany the mother of allegedly murdered schoolgirl, Charlise Mutten
Accused murderer Justin Stein (pictured) is on trial over the death of his former stepdaughter Charlise Mutten
Ms Mutten denied that at the time just before Charlise’s alleged murder that Stein had told her the relationship was over when the schoolgirl returned to the custody of her grandparents in Queensland.
Asked about certain items she kept in the Stein property shed, including a pendulum, she rejected the suggestion it was ‘witchcraft’, or that she believed in the occult.
‘I wouldn’t say witchcraft, it’s spiritual. I believe in a higher power,’ she said, and agreed that she could receive messages from the pendulum telling her what to do.
Ms Davenport then asked: ‘Did a messenger tell you to kill your daughter?’, to which Ms Mutten replied ‘no’.
Ms Mutten also kept a purple book where she and Stein wrote notes to each other in the shed.
Justin Stein allegedly drove around Sydney with Charlise’s body in a barrel in the back of his ute. (Picture NSW Police)
In one entry around Christmas, 2021, after arguments with Stein stemming from his mother’s criticisms of her, Ms Mutten wrote about ending her life.
The entry said: ‘I’m going to do everyone a favour and leave this cruel world. Please keep Charlise in your life.
‘I’m sorry for being a bad mum and dragging you down. Good things will come your way now I’m gone. It’s me, not you. Now the bad juju is gone … those dark people will let you go. I love you Justin forever.’
The entry said: ‘I’m going to do everyone a favour and leave this cruel world. Please keep Charlise in your life.
Crown prosecutor Ken McKay SC has said that Justin Stein was the ‘last person’ to see Charlise and had the opportunity to kill her between 7.16pm on January 11 and 10.06am on January 12.
The trial before Justice Helen Wilson continues.
