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JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) A central Missouri teenager who confessed to strangling, cutting and stabbing a 9-year-old girl because she wanted to know how it felt to kill someone was sentenced Wednesday to life in prison with the possibility of parole.
Alyssa Bustamante, 18, pleaded guilty in January to second-degree murder and armed criminal action in the October 2009 slaying of Elizabeth Olten in St. Martins, a small rural town west of Jefferson City.
The judge also ordered the teen to serve a consecutive 30-year term in the armed criminal action charge.
Bustamante was 15 years old when she confessed to strangling Elizabeth, repeatedly stabbing her in the chest and slicing the girl's throat. She led police to the shallow grave where she had concealed Elizabeth's body under a blanket of leaves in the woods behind their neighborhood.
With her hands shackled to her waist and her feet shackled together, Bustamante rose and faced Elizabeth's mother and siblings before she was sentenced Wednesday.
"I know words," she said, pausing to take a deep breath and struggling to compose herself, "can never be enough and they can never adequately describe how horribly I feel for all of this."
She added: "If I could give my life to get her back I would. I'm sorry."
Elizabeth's mother, Patty Preiss, who on the first day of Bustamante's sentencing hearing called her "an evil monster" and declared that she "hated her" sat silently, staring forward during Bustamante's apology.
The Olten family declined to comment to reporters, as did Bustamante's family.
Bustamante had been charged with first-degree murder and by pleading guilty to the lesser charges she avoided a trial and the possibility of spending her life in an adult prison with no chance of release.
The teenager's defense attorneys had argued for a sentence less than life in prison, saying Bustamante's use of the antidepressant Prozac had made her more prone to violence. They said she had suffered from depression for years and once attempted suicide by overdosing on painkillers.
She can't be fixed. She should get the death penalty and be done with it.
She can't be fixed. She should get the death penalty and be done with it.
She was on prozac, it has side effects. I'm not excusing her but I am pointing out that possibly, with the right medication, she can be fixed.
What the heck is a teen doing on prozac anyway?
I think we are way too ready to drug our kids. I have two kids with autism and for the most part, they have not been on drugs. Now that my son is in a living situation, they have him on all kinds of drugs and he's got all kinds of problems he never had at home. Drugs are nothing to play around with.
Too bad her suicide attempts were not successful.... what a piece of shit
She can't be fixed. She should get the death penalty and be done with it.
She was on prozac, it has side effects. I'm not excusing her but I am pointing out that possibly, with the right medication, she can be fixed.
What the heck is a teen doing on prozac anyway?
I think we are way too ready to drug our kids. I have two kids with autism and for the most part, they have not been on drugs. Now that my son is in a living situation, they have him on all kinds of drugs and he's got all kinds of problems he never had at home. Drugs are nothing to play around with.
Too bad her suicide attempts were not successful.... what a piece of shit
Hopefully she tries again...and secedes.
She can't be fixed. She should get the death penalty and be done with it.
She was on prozac, it has side effects. I'm not excusing her but I am pointing out that possibly, with the right medication, she can be fixed.
What the heck is a teen doing on prozac anyway?
I think we are way too ready to drug our kids. I have two kids with autism and for the most part, they have not been on drugs. Now that my son is in a living situation, they have him on all kinds of drugs and he's got all kinds of problems he never had at home. Drugs are nothing to play around with.
Too bad her suicide attempts were not successful.... what a piece of shit
Hopefully she tries again...and secedes.
What? And start another Civil War?
This is scary how our kids are becoming.
Mo. teen gets life with possible parole in killing
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — A central Missouri teenager who confessed to strangling, cutting and stabbing a 9-year-old girl because she wanted to know how it felt to kill someone was sentenced Wednesday to life in prison with the possibility of parole.
Alyssa Bustamante, 18, pleaded guilty in January to second-degree murder and armed criminal action in the October 2009 slaying of Elizabeth Olten in St. Martins, a small rural town west of Jefferson City.
The judge also ordered the teen to serve a consecutive 30-year term in the armed criminal action charge.
Bustamante was 15 years old when she confessed to strangling Elizabeth, repeatedly stabbing her in the chest and slicing the girl's throat. She led police to the shallow grave where she had concealed Elizabeth's body under a blanket of leaves in the woods behind their neighborhood.
With her hands shackled to her waist and her feet shackled together, Bustamante rose and faced Elizabeth's mother and siblings before she was sentenced Wednesday.
"I know words," she said, pausing to take a deep breath and struggling to compose herself, "can never be enough and they can never adequately describe how horribly I feel for all of this."
She added: "If I could give my life to get her back I would. I'm sorry."
Elizabeth's mother, Patty Preiss, who on the first day of Bustamante's sentencing hearing called her "an evil monster" and declared that she "hated her" sat silently, staring forward during Bustamante's apology.
The Olten family declined to comment to reporters, as did Bustamante's family.
Bustamante had been charged with first-degree murder and by pleading guilty to the lesser charges she avoided a trial and the possibility of spending her life in an adult prison with no chance of release.
The teenager's defense attorneys had argued for a sentence less than life in prison, saying Bustamante's use of the antidepressant Prozac had made her more prone to violence. They said she had suffered from depression for years and once attempted suicide by overdosing on painkillers.
Mo. teen gets life with possible parole in killing - Yahoo! News
This is scary how our kids are becoming.
Mo. teen gets life with possible parole in killing
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) A central Missouri teenager who confessed to strangling, cutting and stabbing a 9-year-old girl because she wanted to know how it felt to kill someone was sentenced Wednesday to life in prison with the possibility of parole.
Alyssa Bustamante, 18, pleaded guilty in January to second-degree murder and armed criminal action in the October 2009 slaying of Elizabeth Olten in St. Martins, a small rural town west of Jefferson City.
The judge also ordered the teen to serve a consecutive 30-year term in the armed criminal action charge.
Bustamante was 15 years old when she confessed to strangling Elizabeth, repeatedly stabbing her in the chest and slicing the girl's throat. She led police to the shallow grave where she had concealed Elizabeth's body under a blanket of leaves in the woods behind their neighborhood.
With her hands shackled to her waist and her feet shackled together, Bustamante rose and faced Elizabeth's mother and siblings before she was sentenced Wednesday.
"I know words," she said, pausing to take a deep breath and struggling to compose herself, "can never be enough and they can never adequately describe how horribly I feel for all of this."
She added: "If I could give my life to get her back I would. I'm sorry."
Elizabeth's mother, Patty Preiss, who on the first day of Bustamante's sentencing hearing called her "an evil monster" and declared that she "hated her" sat silently, staring forward during Bustamante's apology.
The Olten family declined to comment to reporters, as did Bustamante's family.
Bustamante had been charged with first-degree murder and by pleading guilty to the lesser charges she avoided a trial and the possibility of spending her life in an adult prison with no chance of release.
The teenager's defense attorneys had argued for a sentence less than life in prison, saying Bustamante's use of the antidepressant Prozac had made her more prone to violence. They said she had suffered from depression for years and once attempted suicide by overdosing on painkillers.
Mo. teen gets life with possible parole in killing - Yahoo! News
I am trying to fathom why they pleaded this down to 2nd degree, what for? the case wasn't strong enough? She confessed and lead them to the body.
I can see, maybe not gassing her ass due to the prozac, maybe I said, BUT, its fucking premeditated murder, this thing needs to go away, for good.
my patience for this type of thing is minimal, I go Roman on shit like this...... seriously? if it were me, I would make her parents strangle her, to death in front of the other parents. we'll take a pass on the throat cutting.
Too bad her suicide attempts were not successful.... what a piece of shit
Hopefully she tries again...and secedes.
I like the emphasis on the fact that she is a TEEN. Typically, this means that she is not an adult as that was also my first thought. She was 18 though - an ADULT though quite young. Killing someone just to see how it feels is monstrous and killing someone that young even more so. She has no right to ever get out and 35 years, quite frankly, is not sufficient.
I like the emphasis on the fact that she is a TEEN. Typically, this means that she is not an adult as that was also my first thought. She was 18 though - an ADULT though quite young. Killing someone just to see how it feels is monstrous and killing someone that young even more so. She has no right to ever get out and 35 years, quite frankly, is not sufficient.
She was 15 at the time of the murder.
She should have gotten life. She really should have gotten the death penalty.
Too bad her suicide attempts were not successful.... what a piece of shit
Hopefully she tries again...and secedes.
Why did we stop taking prisoner's belts & shoe laces away?
Why are we preventing them from killing themselves?
