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Charlize Mutten loved her alleged killer and was excited to spend Christmas with him and her mother before the fatal visit, a trial was told.
Justin Lawrence Stein, 33, has denied killing the schoolgirl on or about January 12, 2022, at Mt Wilson, in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney.
The nine-year-old was visiting Stein and her mother Calista Mutten over the holiday break, with the group spending time between a property in Mount Wilson and a caravan at Riverview Ski Park, about 90 minutes away.
Charlies’ grandfather, Clinton Mouton, appeared as the Crown’s first witness at the trial in the NSW Supreme Court on Tuesday.
She had lived with her grandparents since she was around four after it became clear that her mother, a long-time drug user, was unable to properly care for her, the jury heard.
Clinton Mutten said his daughter’s drug use worsened during her relationship with Charlize’s biological father, a union that was marred by domestic violence and ended soon after the girl’s birth.
Charlize “really liked” Stein and once asked him if he thought the accused killer would make a good father, Mutten said.
He said she was “happy and excited” about the trip and he was not concerned about her safety despite the couple’s history of drug use.
Stein’s attorney, Carolyn Davenport SC, suggested that during Charlize’s visit, her mother continued to use the intravenous drug ice.
But Charlies’ grandfather said he was under the impression they had both “cleaned up their act”.
The trial heard from a number of witnesses who recalled seeing Charlize, Calista Mutten and Stein at various times at the caravan park in the days before the young girl disappeared.
Caravan owner Rodney Burns said a woman he didn’t know, matching Calista Mutten’s description, approached him Jan. 9 and asked if he could buy her cigarettes and soft drinks while she was in town.
Burns said the woman was speaking slurred, telling him her fiance had gone to the mountains and she had nothing to eat or drink.
“She was talking very fast and all over the place,” he told the court.
“The conversation just jumped all over the place. I understood the opinion that she was on drugs.’
During her testimony, Clinton Mouton described her granddaughter as an academic generalist who loved animals and dreamed of becoming a veterinarian.
“I took her to school, I was the one who sat in on the parent-teacher interviews,” he said.
“I was very involved with Charlize.”
Mutten said his daughter maintained a “very strong” relationship with the nine-year-old despite their distance and would contact her regularly.
“She will look forward to interacting with her,” he said.
“It was always there and it was unconditional.”
The nine-year-old is traveling from the Gold Coast to Sydney in December 2021 with plans to spend Christmas and New Year with her mother and Stein.
Charlize was reported missing by her mother on January 14.
On the evening of Jan. 12, Charlize was driven back to Mount Wilson by Stein alone, while Calista Mutten stayed in the caravan, prosecutors said.
CCTV footage captured the 33-year-old man at a BP petrol station in Marsden Park, in Sydney’s north-west, the next day.
He was towing a boat in his Holden Colorado ute, which was also transporting a barrel containing Charlise’s body.
The barrel was found stuck in a tree near the Colo River, northwest of Sydney, on January 18, four days after Charlize was reported missing.
She was shot once in the head and once in the waist.
The trial is expected to last six weeks.
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