Alleged killer Justin Stein breaks down in police interview played to NSW Supreme Court murder trial

A man accused of shooting a nine-year-old girl and dumping her body in a barrel cried to police saying “she was going to be my little girl,” a jury has heard.

The man who allegedly murdered nine-year-old Charlise Mutten broke down crying in an interview with police, telling them the schoolgirl “means the world” to him and she was going to be his “little girl”, a jury has heard.

Justin Stein spent more than two hours talking to police on January 14, 2022, two days after prosecutors allege he shot the girl twice and put her body in a barrel before rolling it down an embankment near the Colo River.

Through tears he told the officers that Charlise going missing was “f**king killing” him and alluded to his partner, Kallista Mutten, having something to do with her daughter’s disappearance.

“I don’t even know and that’s what’s f**king killing me...I feel like I’m having a constant panic attack like I can’t really breathe,” he says in the footage, which was played to the jury on Thursday.

“Going off my gut I think it’s got something to do with Kallista and her family.”

Charlise Mutten’s body was found with two gun wounds in a barrel near the Colo River.

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.

Charlise had been visiting her mother, who was engaged to Mr Stein at the time, during the school holidays.

She spent her time in Sydney split between Mr Stein’s family property at Mount Wilson, where she was allegedly shot and killed, and a caravan park named the Riviera Ski Gardens in Lower Portland, about 1.5 hours away.

The interview with Mr Stein was conducted on the day Charlise was reported missing, and just hours after he allegedly disposed of her body.

Mr Stein told police he had left Charlise with a real estate agent on January 12, who had offered to look after the nine-year-old because she woke up “vomiting chunks”.

The jury heard he then went to pick up Ms Mutten from the caravan park before they made a detour to Surry Hills in Sydney to pick up drugs.

When they arrived at the house at 8.44pm, it was locked and Charlise was nowhere to be found.

“I went around and checked everything...her bag was gone, her hoodie was gone,” Mr Stein told police in the video which was played for the jury.

He then called his mother and told police he found out some “pretty shocking information” that the real estate agent wasn’t supposed to be at the house until the following week.

Mr Stein told police he started to “panic” and walked around the property looking for Charlise.

About an hour into the interview he began to get emotional and broke down saying he felt “responsible” for leaving the girl with the woman he believed was a real estate agent.

Justin Stein is accused of killing the young girl.

Police questioned why he didn’t get the woman’s full name or number, or tried contacting her after the girl went missing.

When he was questioned if he was telling the truth Mr Stein said he had “no reason to lie”.

Mr Stein was asked if he believed if Charlise may no longer be alive, responding that he thought she would “be OK”.

“In my heart I think she’ll be OK because I know the kind of girl she is...if something would’ve happened she would have left a sign or something,” he said.

The officers asked if he had been involved in the girl’s death.

He responded “No...no...never”.

“If she was hit I guarantee she would’ve been taken to hospital...that kid means the world to me if something happened I’d never live with myself,” he said.

Mr Stein told police he would have told them in a “heartbeat” if he knew anything bad had happened to the girl.

“That kid really does mean the world to me you know what I mean, I don’t have much experience but this was my chance,” he said, beginning to cry.“She was going to be my little girl.”

He told police he didn’t think Ms Mutten cared about her children as much as she claimed, telling them she “hadn’t woken up” after going to prison.

Mr Stein claimed he was trying to “build a new life” while Ms Mutten “sat on her ass doing nothing”.

Justin Stein claimed he was searching for the girl as he allegedly drove around Sydney with her body in a barrel in the back of his ute. Picture: NSW Police

The jury earlier heard Mr Stein had lied to his mother, Annemie Stein, about searching for Charlise on January 13, claiming he was “camped in the car watching” for the girl.

The jury was told his mother then sent a message which said she thought “Kallista has done all this” and things were “not adding up”.

When Mr Stein told her it was possible she queried whether she was as “distraught” as him, and any mother would be “inconsolable”.

Mr Stein’s mother continued to claim his fiance “knows where Charlise is”.

She wrote: “I’m beside myself and she has no connection to me...what the f**k is going on here?”

“I’M SO STUPID”

The day after her daughter was allegedly killed Ms Mutten sent a message to her then-fiance saying “I’m grabbing my daughter and taking her to my brother’s. I’m not losing her over you. I’m so stupid.”

Charlise’s body was found days later on on January 18, 2022.

Ms Mutten sent the messages after she found out her then-fiance was cheating on her.

Crown prosecutor Ken McKay SC alleges 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.

The jury was told Mr Stein went and retrieved Ms Mutten from the caravan park later on January 12, with the mother under the impression Charlise was unwell and being looked after at the Mount Wilson property.

When they arrived at 8.44pm to find Charlise wasn’t there, Ms Mutten called two local hospitals to try and locate her daughter.

During the night, the jury was told Ms Mutten went through Mr Stein’s phone and saw he had been accessing adult dating sites and cheating on her, which caused her “distress”.

Charlise’s mother, Kallista Mutten. Picture: Jeremy Piper

At 3.39am, Ms Mutten sent a message calling Mr Stein a “liar and a cheat”, before saying she was going to “neck” herself and she was “so stupid”.

Fifteen minutes later, the jury was told Ms Mutten took her partner’s car and drove to a local camping ground.

“I’m grabbing my daughter and taking her to my brother’s. I’m not losing her over you. I’m so stupid,” another text to Mr Stein read.

“GOT MY GUNS”

The jury was told there was a “confrontation” between the couple at the house before Ms Mutten again took off in his car, prompting Mr Stein to leave eight voicemails on her phone.

“If you don’t bring it back I am going to f**king hurt you as well as everyone else, and I’ll tell the police you’re the one who took your daughter so they will bring back my f**king car,” the recording, which was played to the jury, said.

The jury heard another voicemail where Mr Stein said: “I’ve got my f**king guns and I’m going to f**king kill you now, and I’m f**king serious, you’ve f**ked me over for the last time … it was you doing this to Charlise to f**k me wasn’t it c**t, I’m going to kill you.”

Ms Mutten didn’t report her daughter missing until 8.12am on January 14.

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.

Originally published as Alleged killer Justin Stein breaks down in police interview played to NSW Supreme Court murder trial