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Today's Poll!Bustamante’s journal recounts how she killed 9-year-old girl
This courtroom sketch by News Tribune artist Jim Dyke shows Alyssa Bustamante with her public defender, Donald Catlett. Photo by Jim Dyke.
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
A journal of Alyssa Bustamante matter of factly described how she killed 9-year-old Elizabeth Olten in October 2009 and described the experience as ‘ahmazing,’ according to testimony Monday in her sentencing hearing.
Bustamante, now 18, pleaded guilty Jan. 10 to second-degree murder for the Oct. 21, 2009, killing. Two days of hearings have been scheduled before Cole County Circuit Judge Patricia Joyce imposes a sentence, which could be up to life in prison with a possibility of parole.
Alyssa’s attorney, Public Defender Donald Catlett, said it was their intent to show Joyce that the severe emotional damage she suffered growing up in a broken home helped lead to the events of October 2009.
He said they also would show that her age and development may have led to her actions, as well as her struggle with severe mental illness for more than two years — and that her family had a history of dealing with that disease.
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Comments
wow 1 year, 3 months ago
She's taking precription meds, is allowed to go to a public school with other children and is maintaning pretty darn good grades. Her parents smoked weed...wait...parents smoked "WEED". Hey isn't WEED a HARMLESS plant that only casues mad hunger and and giggles? So how did this earthly root make Bustamantw want to kill? Also it was her parents that smokked the weed, not her! I can understand that her parents also used meth...but that wasn't while Alyssa was in the the womb, so agin how did this drug mentally goof her up enough to make her kill an innocent child.
Again...the Bustamante family, the legal advisors and Alyssa have severely perverted the very system which innocent Elizabeth Olten and her family depended on to seek fair and impartial justice for the wrong done to them. The Oltens did not get justice, they got PLAYED!
It also appears as if Alyssa is not the only weaked minded person in her family...Mom, Dad, Brother, Sister, Granmom, Grandad, etc, etc, etc, they are all equally at fault. Everyone of them know what happened and not one of them has had the gut's to be an adult/parent. Ya wanna know why a large portion of our society is messed up......here is a perfect example.
On days like this, I just hate going to work!!!!!!
richg 1 year, 3 months ago
Hey Jim Dyke, stick with political caricatures. Your attempt at serious art looks ridiculous on the front page.
gofish 1 year, 3 months ago
What? Her attorney isn't Dr. Fu Manchu? I'm baffled. And kidding. :-)
JCLifer 1 year, 3 months ago
Banning cameras in the courtroom is plain nuts. Open government so that everyone can see what is happening. Maybe some folks would learn some things instead of all the speculation.
playnice 1 year, 3 months ago
Seriously. The judge bans cameras, allowing one courtroom artist to be the eyes of the public, and the News Tribune sends a cartoonist?! I know Jefferson City is not exactly a sophisticated metropolis and the News Tribune is probably more used to covering bake sales and rotary club meetings than real news but come on people, this is the biggest story of your careers, couldn't you at least spring for a sketch artist that knows how to sketch?
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