Court told when suspected killer dumped body of NSW schoolgirl

The man accused of murdering Charlise Mutten has said he knew dumping the schoolgirl's body in a barrel by a river would “catch up” with him.

Justin Stein, 34, has pleaded not guilty to the murder of nine-year-old Charlise in January 2022, saying it was the girl's mother, Kallista Mutten, who shot him.

At the time, Mutten was in a relationship with Stein and the two had discussed plans to marry, the court heard.

Charlise's body was found dumped in a barrel on the banks of the Colo River, northwest of Sydney, four days after she went missing, with two gunshot wounds.

Stein told the NSW Supreme Court today that he vomited when he found the girl's body in a barrel in the back of his SUV, before panicking and driving aimlessly for several hours.

Footage captured Stein on January 13 towing a boat with the barrel and buying sandbags from Bunnings which were later found next to Charlise's body.

But Stein says he didn't know until later that the girl's body was on the vehicle and that he had initially purchased sand to resurface under a deck.

After claiming to have seen Mutten shoot Charlise the night before, Stein said she called him while he was driving and told him Charlise was with him and that he was the only one who could find her.

“I didn’t really think about it at the time,” Stein said.

He later said the barrel came loose and he stopped to check, which is when he said he discovered the girl's body.

After several hours of driving to locations across Sydney, including boat ramps, phone data which would later be used by police to locate Charlise's body, showed Stein stopping briefly at a isolated road along the Colo River.

“I just stopped the car, jumped out, took the barrel out of the ute and threw the sand in it, then pushed it off the side of the road,” Stein said to the court.

The previous night he was working on his car in a shed, he told the court, when he said he heard a gunshot and Charlise calling out to him.

“I came out of the shed…that's when I heard Charlise yelling 'mommy, no,' and then bang, there was a second shot,” Stein said.

“I said, 'What did you do?'” Stein told the court.

Stein said Mutten repeatedly yelled at him, “You did this” and pointed the gun at him, telling him to go get a tarp from the shed.

When he returned after getting a tarp, Stein said Mutten and Charlise were gone.

Stein said he returned home where he rolled a joint to try to calm down.

“I finally stopped crying, I smoked that joint,” Stein said.

Stein said he didn't see Mutten again until the next day, when she left the property in her car, prompting him to report the vehicle as stolen to police.

Although two officers attended the scene that day, Stein did not tell them anything about what he believed had happened to Charlise.

Stein also admitted to lying to police in two interviews on Jan. 14, but said it was Mutten's idea to tell officers he left Charlise in the care of a woman who was evaluating items on the Mount Wilson property.

“I knew throwing that barrel would catch up with me, so I just followed Kallista’s story,” Stein said.

The trial continues.