Thread: What kind of monsters are we creating ?

Police: Mo. teen dug grave anticipating murder
By David A. Lieb, Associated Press Writers
1 hr 30 mins ago

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – Blessed with a Friday off school, 15-year-old Alyssa Bustamante dug two holes in the ground to be used as a grave, authorities said. For the next week, she attended classes, all the while plotting the right time for a murder, they said.

That time arrived the evening of Oct. 21, when Bustamante strangled 9-year-old neighbor Elizabeth Olten without provocation, cut the girl's throat and stabbed her, prosecutors said. Why?

"Ultimately, she stated she wanted to know what it felt like," Missouri State Highway Patrol Sgt. David Rice testified Wednesday during a court hearing over the slaying.

Rice, who interviewed Bustamante in the days after Elizabeth's disappearance, said she confessed to investigators and led them to the fourth grader's well-concealed body in a wooded area near their neighborhood in St. Martins, a small town west of Jefferson City.

A Cole County judge ruled Wednesday that Bustamante, who has been held in Missouri's juvenile justice system, should be tried as an adult. Hours later, the teen was indicted on adult charges of first-degree murder and armed criminal action for allegedly using a knife to kill Elizabeth. A judge later entered a not guilty plea on Bustamante's behalf and referred her to the public defender's office.

The court proceedings marked the first time that the suspect in Elizabeth's death had been publicly identified since a two-day search for the girl by hundreds of volunteers. When they found Elizabeth's body Oct. 23, authorities only said that a 15-year-old had led them to it and was in custody for the slaying.

Bustamante remained largely expressionless as she sat with her hands shackled around her waist in court Wednesday. She occasionally looked down beneath the brown bangs that covered her eyes and swallowed hard as a judge read the charges against her.

On one side of the courtroom sat her mother and grandmother, who has been Bustamante's legal guardian for about half of her life. On the other side sat Elizabeth's mother, relatives and friends, several of whom wore pink — Elizabeth's favorite color.

Bustamante was ordered held without bond pending her trial. If convicted of first-degree murder, she would be sentenced to life in prison without parole.

Witnesses at Bustamante's adult certification hearing described a girl who was bright yet depressed and clever in a sometimes sneaky sort of way. She ranked in roughly the top third of her class at Jefferson City High School, the principal said, and had been in no trouble at school or with the law.

Yet Bustamante had tried to commit suicide at age 13 and had been receiving mental health treatment for depression and cutting herself, said David Cook, the chief juvenile officer in Cole County. Once, she led her family to believe she was attending a local church event when she instead sneaked off to a concert in St. Louis, about two hours away, Cook said. On one or two other occasions, Bustamante spent the night in the woods without permission, he said.

After her arrest, Bustamante tried to cut herself with her own fingernails while being held in juvenile custody, said her appointed juvenile defense attorney Kurt Valentine.

He argued Bustamante should remain in the juvenile system, where she could potentially be rehabilitated before being set free by age 21. Valentine warned that Bustamante would either kill herself or be assaulted and killed by others if she were placed in an adult jail cell or prison. "We are throwing away the child and we are signing a death sentence for Alyssa," Valentine said. "She is not going to survive her time in the Cole County jail."

Cole County Sheriff Greg White said later that Bustamante would be held at a different, undisclosed location.

Cook recommended Bustamante be tied as an adult. Cole County Circuit Judge Jon Beetem agreed, saying the killing was vicious and that the state had no adequate facilities or services to treat Bustamante if she remained in the juvenile system.

Bill Heberle, with the Missouri Division of Youth Services, testified that the state has no secure facilities with fences for female juveniles. Youths in Missouri's juvenile system generally are housed in group settings and are not typically watched by staff 24 hours a day, he said.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091119/...rl_slain/print

15-year-old Alyssa Bustamante dug two holes in the ground to be used as a grave, authorities said. For the next week, she attended classes, all the while plotting the right time for a murder, they said.
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Bustamante strangled 9-year-old neighbor Elizabeth Olten without provocation, cut the girl's throat and stabbed her, prosecutors said. Why?
"Ultimately, she stated she wanted to know what it felt like,"

"We are throwing away the child and we are signing a death sentence for Alyssa," Valentine said. "She is not going to survive her time in the Cole County jail."

Isn't that what she did to Elizabeth ? I would be afraid that someone that warped and twisted at such a young age could not be "rehabilitated".

Slaying suspect said hobby was 'killing people'
By David A. Lieb, Associated Press Writer
1 hr 30 mins ago

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – On an Internet site, 15-year-old Alyssa Bustamante listed her hobbies as "killing people" and "cutting." It may have sounded like a teenage exaggeration, but authorities say she fulfilled her words.

Even as new details emerge about the teenager charged with killing 9-year-old Elizabeth Olten, many facts about the crime continued to be kept secret Thursday — and may never be released by authorities unless Bustamante goes to trial for murder.

Bustamante, who had been in juvenile custody since leading police to Elizabeth's body Oct. 23, was certified Wednesday as an adult and indicted on charges of first-degree murder and armed criminal action. She is accused of strangling Elizabeth, cutting her throat and stabbing her.

Online court records showed Thursday that a public defender assigned to represent Bustamante filed a motion seeking to have her placed in a state hospital for immediate mental health treatment.

On a YouTube profile viewed by The Associated Press, which has since been taken down, Bustamante listed her hobbies as "killing people" and "cutting." A year ago, Bustamante posted a video to the site in which she appears to intentionally shock herself on an electric fence near her home, then goads her two younger brothers into doing the same.

In court Wednesday, juvenile justice officials testified that Bustamante attempted to commit suicide in 2007 and had been receiving mental health treatment for depression and cutting herself.

A police officer testified that Bustamante confessed to digging two holes to be used as a grave, then killing Elizabeth five days later without provocation because she wanted to know what it felt like.

But repeated objections by Bustamante's juvenile justice attorney prevented the police officer from explaining why two holes were dug. Cole County prosecutor Mark Richardson also has declined to elaborate. "I know that, but I cannot go into those details right now," Richardson said.

Asked if he could say whether Elizabeth's body was found in only one of those holes, Richardson paused for several seconds and again replied: "No, I can't tell you that right now."

Richardson similarly declined to explain what the sheriff meant when he said last month that the investigation was aided by "some written evidence." The Cole County sheriff's office did not immediately return a call Thursday.

Those kinds of details might normally be included in a probable cause statement from sheriff's deputies or police as a basis for a prosecutor to file charges. But in Bustamante's case, there is no probable cause statement in the court file, because she was instead indicted by a grand jury.

Greater details of the crime also are included in Bustamante's juvenile court records, but those will remain closed under state law, said Cole County Juvenile Court Administrator Michael County.

No further details are expected to emerge at a Dec. 7 status hearing in Bustamante's case. It could be months, maybe even a year, before a trial at which witnesses would be called to explain the details and circumstances of the crime. But no trial — or testimony — would occur if Bustamante were to plead guilty to a charge.

Although he did not rule it out, Richardson said he wasn't inclined to agree to a plea on a charge of anything less than first-degree murder, which carries a sentence of life in prison without parole. "Because of the nature of the case, there is not a lot of room to enter into pleas," he said.



http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091120/...xheWluZ3N1c3Bl

... many facts about the crime continued to be kept secret Thursday — and may never be released by authorities unless Bustamante goes to trial for murder.

which is how it should be done ...

Mo. teen pleads not guilty to killing neighbor, 9
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091208/...RlZW5wbGVhZHM-
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – A 15-year-old Missouri girl pleaded not guilty Tuesday to killing a 9-year-old neighbor girl whom authorities say was slain because the teen wanted to know what it felt like to kill someone.

Alyssa Bustamante sat silently as an attorney entered a not guilty plea on her behalf to first-degree murder and armed criminal action in the Oct. 21 death of Elizabeth Olten. Bustamante often gazed down — her long bangs covering her eyes, her hands and feet shackled — during a Cole County court hearing that lasted less than a minute.

Authorities say Bustamante plotted Elizabeth's slaying — digging two holes several days in advance — then strangled her without provocation, cut the girl's throat and stabbed her. They say Bustamante led officers to Elizabeth's body in a wooded area near the girls' homes after hundreds of volunteers helped in a two-day search for the missing fourth-grader. The girls lived several houses apart in St. Martins, a small town just west of Jefferson City.

During a court hearing last month, Missouri State Highway Patrol Sgt. David Rice testified that Bustamante had confessed to the killing to investigators. "Ultimately, she stated she wanted to know what it felt like," Rice said.

Bustamante was certified last month to stand trial as an adult. Her arraignment Tuesday was necessary because Bustamante did not have an attorney during her initial Nov. 18 hearing, when Cole County Circuit Judge Patricia Joyce entered a not guilty plea on her behalf. The hearing Tuesday also marked the first time that cameras and recorders were allowed in the courtroom for proceedings in the case.

Juvenile justice officials testified last month that Bustamante had been receiving mental health treatment because of a history of depression and had tried to kill herself about two years ago. Her public defender, Jan King, asked the court to transfer her from jail to a state psychiatric hospital for a four-day evaluation because of depression. But the judge has not ruled on the request, and King said he did not want to take it up for consideration during Tuesday's court appearance.

The judge scheduled a Feb. 16 hearing for an update on Bustamante's case

Teen killer had troubled family, depression
By DAVID A. LIEB | Associated Press – 16 mins ago

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — 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."

http://news.yahoo.com/mo-teen-killer...011900310.html

comments

Oh God here we go, woe is the poor murderer. Gee what a terrible life she has, ergo she can't be responsible for the horrible crime she committed, it's obviously her family and societies fault for her murderous actions. Yep everyone but this little cold blooded killer is to blame.

...

Wow, this is one troubled woman...... I hope she gets the help she really needs. I think that she is a danger to society in her present state. I'm sure the anti-depresants at an early age had a negative affect on her young developing brain. Sad that she killed somebody......very sad....So many lives have been altered because of it

I know I'll get flamed for saying this, but there is such thing as Bad Blood.
Along with a life sentence in prison, she needs to be sterilized, end that blood line now!

I don't know about "bad blood" ... but this person is a sociopath ... no empathy whatsoever... not something that can be learned, taught, or caught... if she doesn't have it, she never will and NO ONE will ever be safe around her. Life without parole or probation .. which is more then Elizabeth got.