Alleged killer’s fate to be decided

A jury has officially retired and will go over more than three weeks of evidence to decide whether Justin Stein murdered schoolgirl Charlise Mutten.

Mr Stein’s NSW Supreme Court trial entered its final stages after the 33-year-old took to the witness box for two days of evidence from both his defence counsel and a Crown prosecutor.

He is accused of murdering Charlise, the daughter of his former fiancee Kallista Mutten, at a property owned by his parents at Mount Wilson before dumping the body, which was concealed in a plastic barrel, near the Colo River.

He has pleaded not guilty to murder but admits to disposing of the nine-year-old’s body.

The jury has been shown a mountain of evidence in the almost-four-week trial, hearing from more than 40 witnesses.

As the only witness in the defence case, Mr Stein gave his final message to the jury on Tuesday: “I never killed Charlise”.

Crown prosecutor Ken McKay grilled the 33-year-old, telling him: “Truth was you had killed Charlise Mutten”.

Mr Stein replied: “No, I never killed Charlise”.

Prosecutors allege Mr 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.

“Charlise Mutten was dead, on the Crown case, at that time at 10.06am,” Mr McKay said in his closing address.

“Shot twice by the accused.”

Mr McKay told the jury Mr Stein had made up elaborate lies, which changed over the course of the time Charlise was missing until her body was found and he was charged with murder.

On Mr Stein’s version of events, the jury was told he claimed Ms Mutten shot and killed her daughter about 9pm on January 12.

But the prosecutor argued Mr Stein’s version of events was “nonsense” and “it just did not happen that way”.

He claimed Mr Stein had “adjusted” his story after seeing the police fact sheet and brief of evidence, changing his story to fit around the timings of phone calls and messages.

“When you consider all the evidence, witnesses, messages, communications, voice messages left by the accused, CCTV footage, the entire evidence, you would be satisfied beyond reasonable doubt the accused murdered Charlise Mutten and that the appropriate verdict is guilty.”

But giving her final address, Mr Stein’s barrister Carolyn Davenport SC claimed there was “no reasonable possibility” her client could be found guilty of Charlise’s murder.

“My submission to you is the accumulation of the things happening in Kallista Mutten’s life that week … taking ice every day, being rejected by Justin Stein, being rejected by her daughter and knowing she was no longer able to go and live at Mount Wilson had a cumulative effect upon her,” Ms Davenport said on Wednesday.

“To gain attention, to win Justin Stein back, she killed her child.”

Ms Davenport argued Ms Mutten had used self-harm to “try and make people do what she wanted”, and didn’t take rejection well which led to becoming “psychotic”.

The defence barrister said: “that might have been the last straw, as it were”.

She told the jury that Ms Mutten was “very capable of lying” and urged the jury there was no reasonable possibility Mr Stein killed Charlise and not to convict her client.

Charlise had travelled to Sydney from Tweed Heads on December 21, 2021, and spent her time split between Mr Stein’s family property at Mount Wilson, where she was allegedly killed, and at the Riviera Ski Gardens caravan park in Lower Portland about 90 minutes away.

The barrel with Charlise’s body was found on January 18, 2022, after police went to the location as a result of going through Mr Stein’s phone.

Justice Helen Wilson completed her summing up for the jury, who retired to deliberate on Thursday afternoon.