ELIZABETH OLTEN - 9 yo (2009)/ Guilty: Alyssa Bustamante - St. Martin's MO

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — An out-of-town jury will hear the murder
trial of a central Missouri teenager accused of slaying a 9-year-old
neighbor girl because she wanted to know what it felt like to kill
someone.
A judge decided Tuesday to select a jury from outside of Cole
County as an alternative to a request by Alyssa Bustamante's attorneys
to move the trial elsewhere.

Bustamante, who was 15 at the time of the crime, is charged as an
adult with first-degree murder and armed criminal action in the Oct. 21
slaying of Elizabeth Olten. She has pleaded not guilty.

Authorities say Bustamante plotted Elizabeth's death — digging two
holes several days in advance — then strangled her without provocation,
cut the girl's throat and stabbed her. They say Bustamante confessed in
a police interview to slaying Elizabeth because she wanted to know what
it felt like to kill someone.

Hundreds of volunteers helped during a two-day search for the
missing fourth-grader. Authorities say Bustamante ultimately led them
to Elizabeth's body, which was concealed in a wooded area near the
girls' homes just west of Jefferson City.

Bustamante's attorneys asked in December that her trial be moved
because local residents "are so prejudiced against the defendant that a
fair trial cannot be had in this county."

Prosecutor Mark Richardson objected Tuesday to moving the trial and
suggested the alternative of bringing in jurors from elsewhere.
Richardson said he expects to call a large number of witnesses and said
it would be burdensome on Elizabeth's family — some of whom were in
court Tuesday — to force them to travel for the trial.

Bustamante's attorneys agreed to using an out-of-town jury. Cole
County Circuit Judge Patricia Joyce set a March 8 hearing to decide
from which county the jurors will be selected.

There is no date scheduled yet for Bustamante's trial. She is being
held in jail without bond and did not appear in court for Tuesday's
brief hearing.

Defense attorney Donald Catlett said he still is waiting to receive
copies of police reports and other evidence needed for a trial.

Nancy Grace Case Files

Elizabeth Olten:
• Entry of Appearance
• Supplemental Request for Discovery
• 12/8/09 Docket Entry Sheet
• 12/8/09 Alyssa Bustamante Indictment
• 11/18/09 Murder Indictment
• Order excusing Bustamante's appearance for status hearing

Outside the Cole County Courthouse Wednesday
morning, Elizabeth Olten’s family and friends held up signs in memory of
Elizabeth. Inside the courtroom, lawyers in the Alyssa
Bustamante case were present for a status hearing to hear rulings from
Cole County Judge Patricia Joyce Judge Joyce ruled on one of
three motions filed by defense attorneys.
First motion, the defense wants to make their research in the case and witness list a
secret from the prosecution. Judge Joyce said
that she will not rule on this yet.
Second motion, Bustamante’s attorneys want her to be allowed to wear her own clothes in court during
the trial, instead of an orange jumpsuit. Judge Joyce ruled Bustamante can wear plain clothes
Third motion, Bustamante’s lawyers filed a petition asking the court to let Bustamante finish her high school
education.Bustamante’s attorneys said that just because she is standing trial as an adult does
not mean she is an adult. Bustamante has a right to finish her education.Judge said
that the issue of a pre-trial detainee education for a juvenile has not
been litigated before in Missouri and is taking it the petition under
advisement.Bustamante is charged with the first-degree murder of
9-year-old Elizabeth Olten.Bustamante's public defenders
filed the three motions since Bustamante was certified to stand trial as
an adult last November.A status hearing is scheduled for July 27The
murder trial will not be held in the 2010 calendar year.The
spokesman for the family said that the family will speak loud and clear
after Elizabeth’s murderer is found guilty.
Read the full statement here

Alyssa Bustamante Wants Cards, Clothes Back

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) -- —

Attorneys for a central Missouri teenager accused of killing a 9-year-old neighbor girl say authorities seized birthday and Christmas cards received from the teen's father, as well as eight large bags of her clothes.

Cole County Judge Patricia Joyce on Thursday gave the prosecutor's office 60 days to inventory, copy and determine which items it needs for evidence so the rest can be returned to Alyssa Bustamante. She also denied a defense request to be present during some DNA testing.

Bustamante was 15 years old when she was charged with killing her neighbor, Elizabeth Olten, in October 2009. Police say Bustamante told them she wanted to know what it felt like to kill someone. Bustamante has pleaded not guilty. Her trial is set for May 16.

http://www.fox2now.com/news/ktvi-bustamante-personal-items-seized-120310,0,2829754.story

Mo. teenage murder suspect seeks to bar statements



Friday, March 18, 2011
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Defense attorneys want a Missouri judge to block incriminating statements a teenage murder suspect made to police from being used against her in an upcoming trial.
A motion seeking to suppress statements made by Alyssa Bustamante was released Friday by Cole County Circuit Court, two days after the motion was the subject of a closed-door hearing. The judge has not ruled yet on the motion.
Bustamante was 15 years old when she was charged as an adult in fall 2009 with slaying 9-year-old Elizabeth Olten, a neighbor from a rural town just west of Jefferson City. She has pleaded not guilty and is to face trial in June.
During a hearing in November 2009, a Missouri State Highway Patrol officer testified that Bustamante confessed to killing the girl and led authorities to her body in a well-concealed wooded area. Sgt. David Rice testified that Bustamante told authorities she wanted to know what it felt like to kill someone.
Bustamante’s attorneys contend the interrogation was coercive for someone of her age, background and physical and mental condition. Their motion to suppress the statements contends she was “subjected to mental and physical duress” and was made promises by the officials conducting the questioning, but it does not elaborate on either assertion.


The motion also contends Bustamante was not advised in clear terms of her right to remain silent, that her words could be used against her or that a lawyer could be present during the interrogation.

http://www.newstribune.com/news/2011/mar/18/mo-teenage-murder-suspect-seeks-bar-statements/

Bustamante murder trial pushed to September


The trial of Alyssa Bustamante has been pushed to September. Jury selection will now begin September 13.

Defense attorneys for Bustamante cited another trial as one of the main reasons they requested a continuance from the previously set June 1 trial date.

Bustamante's primary defense attorneys, Charlie Moreland, is representing another first degree murder case in Joplin. The trial in Joplin began earlier this month, but a situation caused the trial to last longer than expected.

They also said their primary investigator was leaving to work for the U.S. Marshals and they were unsure if they could have the expert pieces of their defense in place by June 1.

The trial had already been pushed back. It was scheduled for May 16, but it was pushed to June 1 in February. At that time, the defense asked that cameras not be allowed in the courtroom.

Bustamante is accused of first degree murder in the death of 9-year-old Elizabeth Olten. Bustamante, who is currently 17, was 14 at the time of the murder. Police said she planned to kill Olten, who was a neighbor. Olten was the subject of a massive hunt through the woods near her house. Eventually, Bustamante allegedly led investigators to Olten's body in a shallow hole in the wooded area. Investigators testified that they believe she dug the hole the night before Olten went missing.

http://www.connectmidmissouri.com/news/story.aspx?id=605097

Bustamante trial pushed back to January
by JESSICA MACHETTA on AUGUST 23, 2011
in CRIME & COURTS
The trial for a teenager accused of killing a 9 year-old neighbor in October 2009 has been delayed again, and won’t be held until next year, according to the Jefferson City News Tribune.

Prosecutor Mark Richardson told the judge that his office has evidence in the case against Alyssa Bustamante, 17, that still needed to be tested, which would take another six weeks. Richardson says because of that, there is no way his office would be ready for the Sept. 13 trial date.

Bustamanate’s public defenders, Donald Catlett and Charles Moreland, say they also would have to look over this evidence and, therefore, would need more time.

Judge Joyce has set Jan. 10 and 11 for jury selection in Greene County, and the trial is slated to begin immediately after that. Greene County jurors will be brought to Cole County for the trial.

Bustamante is charged with first-degree murder and armed criminal action in the Oct. 21, 2009, stabbing and strangling death of Elizabeth Olten in rural Cole County.

Also at the hearing, Catlett and Moreland said Prosecutor Richardson’s office has not turned over evidence as required by law. Richardson says he would comply with the judge’s order that it be turned over to the defense team two weeks before the trial. Moreland argues that a mere dump of documents would not be sufficient to meet what is required by the law, unless there was a list of witnesses and evidence that the prosecution planned to use in the trial.

Reporter Jeff Haldiman, who covered the hearing, says Bustamante was not in the courtroom Tuesday, but family members were, leading to heightened security both inside and outside the courtroom.

“After people cleared security to enter the courthouse, a second electronic wand was used to check all persons going into the courtroom and, once the hearing was closed to the public and media, no one was allowed to leave or enter the courthouse’s fourth floor, where Joyce’s courtroom is located,” he reports.

http://www.missourinet.com/2011/08/23/bustamante-trial-pushed-back-to-january/

Mo. teen Alyssa Bustamante pleads guilty to killing 9-year-old girl

January 10, 2012 1:10 PM

(CBS/AP) JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. - A Missouri teenager who told authorities that she strangled, cut and stabbed a 9-year-old neighbor because she wanted to know how it felt pleaded guilty Tuesday in the girl's death.

Alyssa Bustamante pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and armed criminal action in the Oct. 21, 2009, killing of Elizabeth Olten in St. Martins, a rural town just west of Jefferson City.


Bustamante, who will turn 18 on Jan. 28, told Judge Pat Joyce that she knew what she was doing at the time.


Bustamante admitted she used a knife to cut Elizabeth's throat and then strangled the girl with her hands. The confession prompted a sharp, audible intake of breath from Elizabeth's tearful mother who sat in the courtroom just a few feet away.


Bustamante, who was 15-years-old at the time of the attack, had been charged with first-degree murder and was supposed to stand trial starting Jan. 30.


Instead, sentencing was set for Feb. 6.


The plea deal does not include any agreement on a possible sentence. Bustamante could face between 10-30 years to life in prison for the murder charge, and three years to life for armed criminal action.


At a November 2009 hearing, prosecutors said Bustamante plotted Elizabeth's death, even digging two holes to be used as graves, then attended school for about a week while waiting for the right time to kill. They said Bustamante strangled Elizabeth without provocation, cut the girl's throat and stabbed her.


Missouri State Highway Patrol Sgt. David Rice testified that the teenager confessed to the slaying and led authorities to Elizabeth's body. Rice said Bustamante told him "she wanted to know what it felt like" to kill someone.


Hundreds of volunteers searched for two days for Elizabeth before her body was found.


Juvenile justice officials testified that Bustamante had attempted to commit suicide in 2007 and had been receiving mental health treatment for depression and cutting herself.


Witnesses at Bustamante's adult certification hearing described her as a bright girl who ranked roughly in the top third of her class at Jefferson City High School. She had not been in trouble at school or with the law before her arrest in Elizabeth's killing.


http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504083_162-57356145-504083/mo-teen-alyssa-bustamante-pleads-guilty-to-killing-9-year-old-girl/

And so we come to another milestone in this bizarre case.
Due to the nature of the crime and the age of the perp I have followed this one intently.
Had it come to trial perhaps we would have learned more about the process that led AB down this road of horror.
Young Elizabeth's last moments of life had to be filled with terror and pain. The judge has the opportunity to be certain that AB stays incarcerated for a long time. I highly recommend that psychoanalysis is mandated as well.

I recall this case. I hope she gets life as she sounds like she has some kind of evil disorder. She probably does have some type of mental illness like bipolor or schizophrenia.

I can't imagine what sweet Elizabeth went through. So many children tortured to death. It's so sad. Hopefully the punishment will fit the crime when the judge sentences Alyssa.

Alyssa Bustamante pleaded guilty Tuesday morning to an amended charge of second-degree murder and a separate charge of armed criminal action for the Oct. 21, 2009, killing of a 9-year-old neighbor who had been visiting Bustamante’s younger sister.



Alyssa Bustamante

Cole County Prosecutor Mark Richardson on Tuesday told Presiding Circuit Judge Pat Joyce there was no plea bargain or agreement on sentencing, and the state still will recommend a punishment for Bustamante to face.

By law, she faces at least 10 years and up to 30 years — or life — in prison on the second-degree murder conviction. The armed criminal action charge carries a minimum sentence of three years, and also could be up to life in prison.

During the Tuesday hearing, Joyce asked Bustamante how she killed Elizabeth Olten.

“I strangled her and stabbed her in the chest,” Bustamante responded, saying she used a knife as the weapon.

When asked by Joyce, “Did you also cut her throat?,” Bustamante said, “Yes,” in a firm voice.
http://www.fultonsun.com/news/2012/jan/11/bustamante-pleads-guilty-killing-9-year-old-neighb/

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — A Missouri teenager who admitted stabbing, strangling and slitting the throat of a young neighbor girl wrote in her journal on the night of the killing that it was an “ahmazing” and “pretty enjoyable” experience — then headed off to church with a laugh.

The words written by Alyssa Bustamante were read aloud in court Monday as part of a sentencing hearing to determine whether she should get life in prison or something less for the October 2009 murder of her neighbor, 9-year-old Elizabeth Olten, in a small town west of Jefferson City.

Bustamante, 18, sat silently — occasionally glancing at those testifying about her, often looking down or to the side — as law enforcement officers, attorneys and forensics experts read aloud her inner most thoughts that she had recorded as a 15-year-old high school sophomore.

The most poignant part of Monday’s testimony came when a handwriting expert described how he was able to see through the blue ink that Bustamante had used in an attempt to cover up her original journal entry on the night of Elizabeth’s murder. He then read the entry aloud in court:

“I just f------ killed someone. I strangled them and slit their throat and stabbed them now they’re dead. I don’t know how to feel atm. It was ahmazing. As soon as you get over the “ohmygawd I can’t do this” feeling, it’s pretty enjoyable. I’m kinda nervous and shaky though right now. Kay, I gotta go to church now...lol.”

The journal entry was presented to the judge not long after Elizabeth’s mother and other relatives pleaded with Cole County Circuit Judge Pat Joyce to impose the maximum sentence. Bustamante pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and armed criminal action last month and faces at most a sentence of life in prison with a chance for parole. The least she could get is 10 years.

Elizabeth’s mother, Patty Preiss, described her daughter as “happy, little girl,” when she left her home about 5 p.m. after begging to go play with Bustamante’s younger sister. Preiss said she told Elizabeth to be back for dinner at 6 p.m. but never saw her again.

“So much has been lost at the hands of this evil monster,” Preiss tearfully said, with Bustamante sitting several feet away. “Elizabeth was given a death sentence and we were given a life sentence.”

With Bustamante looking at her, Preiss said: “I hate her, I hate everything about her.” The judge cut off her testimony when she described Bustamante as “not even human.”

FBI agents seized the journal from Bustamante’s bedroom during a search of her family’s home the day after Elizabeth went missing as hundreds of volunteers scoured the rural area around St. Martin’s.

Bustamante suggested to FBI and the Missouri State Highway Patrol officials that the girl had probably been kidnapped and that whoever had done so deserved to be convicted.

At one point, law enforcement officers discovered a hole in the ground in the shape of a shallow grave near Bustamante’s home. They testified that Bustamante acknowledged digging it but said she just liked to dig holes. It was only later that Elizabeth’s body was found concealed under leaves in another grave in the woods behind the Bustamante home.

At a hearing in 2009, Missouri State Highway Patrol Sgt. David Rice testified that the teenager told him “she wanted to know what it felt like” to kill someone.

Defense attorneys Monday highlighted Bustamante’s troubled childhood as part of their argument about why she should receive leniency. They referred to numerous references in her journal in the two months before the murder, describing her suicidal feelings and the urge to hurt herself and others.

At one point Bustamante had written that she intended to burn down a house and kill all the occupants, but she never followed through with that. On Oct. 14, one week before Elizabeth’s slaying, Bustamante had written that she was unable to use her cell phone because the charger had died, which meant she couldn’t talk to anyone about the depression and rage she was feeling.

“If I don’t talk about it, I bottle it up, and when I explode someone’s going to die,” she wrote in a journal that was read to the court by her defense attorney, Charlie Moreland.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/missouri-teenager-describes-in-journal-how-much-she-enjoyed-killing-9-year-old-girl/2012/02/06/gIQArgZJuQ_story.html

Abandoned by her mother and missing a father in prison, Alyssa Bustamante had plunged to the depths of depression before, once overdosing on a large bottle of painkillers, slicing her skin hundreds of times and carving the word "hate" in her arm. She recovered from her suicide attempt and was prescribed an antidepressant drug.

Two years later, an increased dosage of the antidepressant Prozac might have made her more prone to do the unthinkable: strangling, slicing the throat and repeatedly stabbing a 9-year-old neighbor girl to death, Bustamante's defense attorneys suggested Monday during a sentencing hearing.



Defense attorneys were to continue presenting evidence Tuesday as they sought to persuade a judge to give Bustamante to something less than the maximum of life in prison with the possibility of parole for the October 2009 slaying of Elizabeth Olten in a small town just west of Jefferson City. Bustamante, who recently turned 18, pleaded guilty last month to second-degree murder and armed criminal action. She was 15 at the time of the crimes and is being sentenced as an adult.

Although Bustamante has remained largely silent in court, prosecutors are using her written words against her to urge a long prison sentence. In a journal entry on the night of the killing, Bustamante described the slaying of Elizabeth with a sense of exhilaration and a typical teenage reliance on texting-style acronyms.

"I strangled them and slit their throat and stabbed them now they're dead," Bustamante wrote in her journal, which was read in court by a handwriting expert. "I don't know how to feel atm. It was ahmazing. As soon as you get over the `ohmygawd I can't do this' feeling, it's pretty enjoyable. I'm kinda nervous and shaky though right now. Kay, I gotta go to church now...lol."

Bustamante headed off to a youth dance at her church while a massive search began for the missing girl. Bustamante's grandmother and legal guardian, Karen Brooke, was asked in court if she noticed anything different about Bustamante as they left the home that evening. She appeared a bit happier than usual, Brooke said.

Brooke said her own daughter -- Bustamante's mother -- had lived a wild life of drug and alcohol abuse and had abandoned her children several times, including once not long before Bustamante attempted suicide in on Labor Day 2007 by swallowing a large bottle of Tylenol and making hundreds of cuts on her arms -- even carving the word "hate" in one of them.

After the suicide attempt, Bustamante was prescribed the antidepressant drug Prozac. Just two weeks before killing Elizabeth, Bustamante started taking a higher dosage, which a defense psychiatrist testified could have increased her mood swings and tendency toward violence.

"I think it was a major contributing factor" in Bustamante's slaying of Elizabeth, testified psychiatrist Edwin Johnston, of Houston.

Prosecutors emphasized the deliberate nature of Bustamante's actions and downplayed any

potential role of the medication. Bustamante had dug a hole for a potential grave several days in advance, and on the evening of the killing, had sent her younger sister to lure Elizabeth outside with an invitation to play.

Elizabeth's mother, Patty Preiss, tearfully recalled how she had reluctantly let Elizabeth leave with an instruction to be back home for dinner but never saw her again. She pleaded with Cole County Circuit Judge Pat Joyce to give Bustamante the maximum sentence.

"So much has been lost at the hands of this evil monster," Preiss said, with Bustamante sitting several feet away. "Elizabeth was given a death sentence, and we were given a life sentence."



Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/02/07/missouri-teen-killer-had-troubled-family-depression/#ixzz1lhmRlKit