FILE - In this Dec. 8, 2009 file photo, Alyssa Bustamante, 15, listens during a brief hearing where her attorney entered not guilty pleas on her behalf to charges of armed criminal action and first-degree murder in Cole County Circuit Court in Jefferson City, Mo. Bustamante, 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 Bustamante were read aloud in court Monday, Feb. 6, 2012, 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. (AP Photo/Kelley McCall, Pool, File)
FILE
- In this Dec. 8, 2009 file photo, Alyssa Bustamante, 15, listens
during a brief hearing where her attorney entered not guilty pleas on
her behalf to charges of armed criminal action and first-degree murder
in Cole County Circuit Court in Jefferson City, Mo. Bustamante, 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 Bustamante were read aloud in
court Monday, Feb. 6, 2012, 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. (AP Photo/Kelley McCall, Pool, File)Dr. Anthony Rothschild testifies before Cole County Circuit Judge Patricia Joyce on the second day of the sentencing hearing of Alyssa Bustamante, Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2012 at Cole County Circuit Court in Jefferson City, Mo. The hearing was to determine whether Bustamante 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. (AP Photo/The Jefferson City News-Tribune, Jim Dyke)
In this courtroom sketch Alyssa Bustamante, left, and one of her attorneys, Donald Catlett, appear at her sentencing hearing Monday, Feb. 6, 2012 at Cole County Circuit Court in Jefferson City, Mo. The hearing was to determine whether Bustamante 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. (AP Photo/The Jefferson City News-Tribune, Jim Dyke)
In this courtroom sketch, Dr. John Stone testifies at the sentencing hearing of Alyssa Bustamante, Monday, Feb. 6, 2012 at Cole County Circuit Court in Jefferson City, Mo. The hearing was to determine whether Bustamante 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. (AP Photo/The Jefferson City News-Tribune, Jim Dyke)
In this courtroom sketch, Cole County Circuit Judge Patricia Joyce presides over the sentencing hearing of Alyssa Bustamante, Monday, Feb. 6, 2012 at Cole County Circuit Court in Jefferson City, Mo. The hearing was to determine whether Bustamante 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. (AP Photo/The Jefferson City News-Tribune, Jim Dyke)
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo.
(AP) ? A Missouri teenager who confessed to murdering a young neighbor
girl faces the possibility of life in prison when she's sentenced
Wednesday morning.
Alyssa
Bustamante, 18, was described by prosecutors as a thrill killer who
lacked remorse and by defense attorneys as a disturbed child who
deserved the chance to be set free one day.
The
trial's conclusion follows days of testimony in a small courtroom in
Missouri's capital city. Proceedings descended into chaos Tuesday as
prosecutor Mark Richardson was making an impassioned, final plea for a
lifelong sentence for Bustamante, who pleaded guilty to murdering
9-year-old Elizabeth Olten in October 2009.
Bustamante's
grandmother and grandfather stormed out of the courtroom. That prompted
Bustamante ? who had been staring blankly downward as Richardson
recounted her crime ? to begin silently crying for the first time in her
court proceedings that have spanned more than two years.
Then
as Cole County Circuit Judge Pat Joyce announced that she would reveal
her sentence on Wednesday, Elizabeth's grandmother interrupted and cried
out from her wheelchair.
"I
think Alyssa should get out of jail the same day Elizabeth gets out of
the grave!" declared the grandmother, whom a prosecutor later identified
as Sandy Corn.
The
disorder capped what was an emotional, two-day sentencing hearing
highlighted by repeated references to words Bustamante ? then age 15 ?
had written in her diary on the night she strangled, slit the throat and
repeatedly stabbed Elizabeth. Bustamante wrote that it was an
"ahmazing" and "pretty enjoyable" experience, ending the entry by
saying: "I gotta go to church now...lol."
"The
motive has to be the most senseless, reprehensible that could be in
humankind, and that is to take a life for a thrill," Richardson said.
Richardson
recounted in the courtroom how hundreds of volunteers had searched for
Elizabeth near the rural town of St. Martins as Bustamante calmly lied ?
at least initially ? to investigators about the girl's whereabouts.
The
prosecutor urged the judge to impose the maximum for second-degree
murder ? life in prison with the possibility of parole ? and an
additional 71 years in prison for armed criminal action, which he said
would have matched the remaining life expectancy of Elizabeth.
Richardson also urged that the sentences be served consecutively,
meaning Bustamante would be an elderly woman before she ever got a
chance at parole.
Bustamante's
attorney, Donald Catlett, countered that the sentences should run
concurrently and that the judge should take into consideration a
pre-sentencing report prepared by the state Division of Probation and
Parole that apparently suggests something less than a life sentence. The
judge said the recommendation must remain confidential.
Catlett
cited the testimony Tuesday of mental health professionals who
described Bustamante as a "psychologically damaged" and "severely
emotionally disturbed" child. They recounted her family's history with
drug abuse, mental disorders and suicide attempts, noting her father was
in prison and her mother had abandoned her ? though she was in the
courtroom Tuesday for the first time. Various mental health
professionals testified over the course of the two-day hearing that
Bustamante suffers from a major depression disorder and displays the
features of a borderline personality disorder. Some also said she shows
early signs of a bipolar disorder.
Bustamante
began taking the antidepressant drug Prozac after a suicide attempt on
Labor Day 2007 at the start of her eighth grade year. Her dosage of the
medication had been increased just two weeks before she murdered
Elizabeth. Bustamante's attorneys presented evidence from a psychiatrist
who testified that Prozac could have been a "major contributing factor"
in the slaying ? a theory rejected by a prosecution psychiatrist who
insisted there was no scientific evidence of Prozac causing homicides,
or even increasing aggression.
Catlett
noted that Bustamante had taken responsibility for her actions in her
guilty plea last month. But he suggested the murder might have been
averted if a Jefferson City mental health care facility had done a
better job of treating her. Asking for leniency from the judge, Catlett
said: "Mental illness can cause disastrous effects."
Each
time defense attorneys elicited testimony about Bustamante's troubled
childhood, prosecutors countered by asking the mental health experts to
describe what Bustamante had told them about the murder.
Those
mental health officials testified that Bustamante told them she dug a
grave several days in advance of the killing, then used her younger
sister to lure Elizabeth outside with an invitation to play. Bustamante
led Elizabeth into the woods by telling her she had a surprise for her.
Bustamante
sliced Elizabeth's throat ? as the child apparently tried to resist ?
with a knife that had been hidden in a backpack. Bustamante also
strangled Elizabeth to the point of unconsciousness, then repeatedly
stabbed Elizabeth in the chest. She was buried in a shallow grave.
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