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Missouri Teen Given Life in Thrill Killing

Steve Pope | 09.02.2012 20:02

An 18-year-old Missouri teen was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole, plus thirty years for her thrill killing of a 9 year-old girl.

Convicted killer 18-year-old Alyssa Bustamante is lead away to a police car.
Convicted killer 18-year-old Alyssa Bustamante is lead away to a police car.


February 8, 2012
(Jefferson City, MO) An 18-year-old Missouri teen, Alyssa Bustamante was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole and thirty years, Wednesday, for her self-described thrill killing of 9-year-old Elizabeth Olten who she admitted killing in October 2009.

Bustamante who has previously described the slaying of Olten as an “ahmazing” and “enjoyable” thrill made an emotional plea before Cole County Circuit Judge Pat Joyce moments before she was sentenced for second-degree murder and armed criminal action saying “"I really am extremely, very sorry for everything. I know words can never be enough, and they can never adequately describe how horribly I feel for all of this” as she struggled to compose herself during her brief, but emotional plea.

According to court documents, Bustamante stabbed 9-year-old Olten in the chest, strangled her, cut her throat and then buried her in a shallow grave covered with leaves.

According to her diary, Bustamante described the killing “I just fucking killed someone. I strangled them and slit their throat and stabbed them now they're dead. I don't know how to feel atm [at the moment].” “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”, the teen would later write. Bustamante then went to a church dance while efforts to find Olten were underway.

Patty Priess, Olten’s mother who had previously called Bustamante “an evil monster” and later said she “hated her” sat silently as Bustamante who while handcuffed and shackled at her ankles made her emotional plea before Judge Joyce.

The teen’s defense attorneys who argued for a term less than life, claimed that because she was taking the antidepressant Prozac at the time of the killing, made her more prone to violence.

Bustamante’s defense attorneys also cited the teens alleged troubled childhood in their attempt to obtain a sentence less than life with the possibility of parole. Defense attorneys argued that Bustamante’s father was in prison and her mother was a drug-abuser and abandoned her, leaving the teen to be raised by her grandmother.

"This was a child who had been spiraling out of control, but has treatable conditions," Bustamante's attorney, Charlie Moreland, said after Bustamante was sentenced.

However, Missouri State Highway Patrol Sgt. David Rice testified that the teenager told him "she wanted to know what it felt like" to kill someone.
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Cole County Prosecutor, Mark Richardson said after describing Bustamante as “truly evil” the sentence was justified because the teen “stabbed and strangled an innocent child simply for the thrill of it.”

Bustamante will be headed to the womens prison in Vandalia, Missouri where she will either serve her sentence, be transferred to another Missouri prison or moved out of state.








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Steve Pope