Alyssa Bustamante Verdict: 'Thrill Killer' Gets Life With Possible Parole For Killing 9-Year-Old Elizabeth Olten

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.

But prosecutors sought a longer sentence. They noted that Bustamante had dug two graves several days in advance, and that on the evening of the killing had sent her younger sister to lure Elizabeth outside with an invitation to play. Missouri State Highway Patrol Sgt. David Rice testified that the teenager told him "she wanted to know what it felt like" to kill someone. Prosecutors also cited journal entries in which Bustamante described the exhilaration of killing Elizabeth.

"I strangled them and slit their throat and stabbed them now they're dead," Bustamante wrote in her diary, 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 then headed off to a youth dance at her church while a massive search began for the missing girl.

MORE ON THIS STORY: Prosecutors Describe Mo. Teen Alyssa Bustamante As 'Thrill Killer'

PHOTOS:

ADDITIONAL PHOTOS ON CBS NEWS:

Comments

[Aimee NathanWint Astbury]

03:46 AM on 04/23/2012

i love her so much

[jocotio54]

12:34 AM on 03/24/2012

This is an old story

[mother10]

07:54 AM on 03/21/2012

off witch

[LoHaze]

02:50 PM on 02/14/2012

Yeah - and when she gets out of prison she might want to do it again. After all, it was ahmazing!! This is a serial killer in the early stages. What will it take for people to understand some people are like this? They like killing! They will always be a danger to society - there is no rehabilitation that will change them. For all of those who feel this young girl should be out in society, how many horrendous murders are committed by those who were given light sentences or given a second chance? What about the guy that killed a young girl in Burr Ridge recently? A messed up druggie who had recently been released from prison. Why wasn't he rehabilitated?

[Joseph Tortora]

11:28 AM on 02/14/2012

"Except for the grace of God, there goes I," St. Phillip of Neri. Profound words of wisdom. It is God's mercy that this is not one of us. We must forgive Alyssa and ask for forgiveness for our offenses. Let's pray to God for the grace to truly forgive and forget the actions of Alyssa and to grant Alyssa her conversion, salvation, holiness and sanctity! Jesus says, "If your sins be as scarlet, My Mercy will make you clean. Your sins and the sins of the whole world mount to less than a drop in my ocean of Mercy." God died for us and rose again so that we may all have eternal life and not perish. As true children of God we must seek the highest good for our neighbor - Eternal Life with God in Heaven.

[Brautigan]

07:45 PM on 02/13/2012

Hopefully she gets the Jeffrey Dahmer treatment. That would be "ahmazing, lol."

[FloridaCon56]

04:48 PM on 02/13/2012

I see many comments about how she should've gotten life w/o parole instead of life with possibility of parole. She also received a 30 year sentence to run consecutively with her life sentence. Usually a life sentence is minimum of 25 years after which parole is an option but not a guarantee. After 25 she can see a parole board, who will probably deny her parole. She's 18 now, minus 3 years in jail that's a minimum of 22 years before she can be considered for parole. IF the parole board grants her parole after the 22 years, she'll be 40. Then she can start serving the other 30 years the judge sentenced her to. Chances are very good she'll never walk free again.

[megsy123]

06:28 PM on 02/13/2012

But if she does, oh, the serial killing she could do, she would get so much enjoyment out of it, don't ya think?

She should have gotten the needle.

[PatrickNM]

10:05 PM on 02/11/2012

This could have been prevented with early intervention, birth control, and mandatory rehab for the parents. I work in a prison and these monsters are created often by brutal physical and sexual abuse. Kids from the same type of home will do great, some will be chronically depressed. There is no excuse for this brutality, however.

[megsy123]

06:30 PM on 02/13/2012

This is anti social personality disorder, not all anti social personalities are serial killers, but all serial killers are anti social personalities.

There is no fixing a person like this.

Some antisocials become serial killers and some politicians, just can't predict how the cards will fall, but once they do it is important that they be permanently removed from society, in any manner possible.

[bluefalcon06]

09:33 AM on 02/11/2012

She's not sorry. She wrote in her diary that it felt "ahmazing", she only apologized because she is going to rot in prison. She's lucky the law won't let her rot underground.

[megsy123]

06:31 PM on 02/13/2012

Anti social personalities only feel regret when it is something that affects them, they have no attachment to anyone or anything except their own ego and life. She is most certainly not sorry, she does not even see the victim as a life snuffed out, just a plaything that she broke.

[OkaliyDokaliy]

12:58 PM on 02/10/2012

I'm not condoning what she did or making excuses but if you look at her parents, she comes from a broken home. Her parents are teenage drug addicts. Mother abandoned her and father incarcerated. Had the mother had an abortion, none of this would have happened. This is the end result of children who are unwanted by their parents and whose parents were not ready mentally & financially for having kids.

This planet is getting overpopulated fast. This country at some point in the near future is going to turn into China and India with the over crowding and then we will have to have only one child per family. Most people don't realize that women who care mentally ready, financially sound, intelligent, loving, & want the children, don't have the abortions but those women who can't afford it, are not ready, mentally unstable to care for kids are the ones who have abortions. Also victims of rape and incest. So if these people want to voluntarily abort their genes from spreading, why not let them????? Otherwise we are doomed to have the future generation of kids a bunch of depressed degenerates.

[Rufereal72]

07:00 PM on 02/10/2012

I have had 3 children, not being wealthy, my first a result of rape...I do not agree with your statement about getting an abortion in those cases.... I love being a mother and wouldn't change a thing. My child coming from rape does not change my love for him...and not having much money, doesn't change the love either. Abortion is a choice, not a necessity.....but yes, the girl is screwed up.,...cps should have stepped in and got her help...

[Susan Shaffer]

04:29 AM on 02/11/2012

yes, but I think what okaliy is trying to say is not so different to what you are saying, that you were prepared mentally to be a parent. I don't think that Alyssa's mother was. There are at least 4 kids that I am aware of, Alyssa, twin brothers and the younger sister who asked Elizabeth over to play.
I'm making a stab at it but I would say that you haven't committed fraud, had a dui, done drugs and wouldn't leave your children with your parents and run off for your freedom.
At the time of Alyssa's mother's 1st pregnancy, perhaps she should have been counselled more fully about what are the responsibilities. People need to be very honest about what it means to bring another life into this world. You have stepped up to the plate. I don't get the feeling that Alyssa's mother did.

[tatt]

01:52 PM on 02/11/2012

You love your kids good for you I'm sure you are a great mom. The point is everyones situation is diferent and for some people in certain circumstances abortion is the best option for them they should have thst choice

[ashydog]

09:43 PM on 02/10/2012

then that should make me a rapist, child abuser and a spouse abuser, in life we have choices to make ourselves better or become what we were made, it's not easy because our demons never go away and we are screwed up but we still have common sence.

[arkmanmat]

08:01 AM on 02/10/2012

Heat up the frying pan and burn her to a crisp.

[jal6641]

12:12 PM on 02/10/2012

Couldn't agree more!!!

[tatt]

01:54 PM on 02/11/2012

classy

[arkmanmat]

03:42 PM on 02/11/2012

You like murderers? I don't. Wait, I do like them medium rare.

[Larsami1]

03:09 AM on 02/10/2012

Wow usually they start out with animals to get the feeling. This girl went right for another girl. Now maybe she should feel what it's like to be on death row.

[tatt]

01:56 PM on 02/11/2012

there has already been one murder lets not commit another.

[Larsami1]

04:02 PM on 02/11/2012

Would you feel the same if the 9yo girl was raped then killed by a pedo? Maybe we could have this feel good girl live with you when she gets out eh?

[megsy123]

06:33 PM on 02/13/2012

I am sure some cats and dogs have gone missing, they just havent found the corpses.

[LeslieNeilson]

02:12 AM on 02/10/2012

No problem Honey...That is if you are behind bars in Mississippi . Gov.Barbor believes in giving vicious killers a "second" chance. To bad it was not the other way around for their victims.

[megsy123]

01:12 AM on 02/10/2012

I am so glad this antisocial BI$%^ also has a very low intellegence level or it could have been years, and hundreds of victims before she was caught.

Now the neighbors know where their missing cat is....

Put her in general population, she can get plenty of "thrills" there!

[Susan Shaffer]

04:20 AM on 02/11/2012

actually she isn't of low intelligence. I have read a couple of stories and she was above average intelligence. She is however a girl that was very unhappy. She was cutting herself and she tried to commit suicide when her mother deserted them again last time.
Her Grandmother tried and she was on Prozac so that means the grandmother was taking her to a doctor/psych and paying for the meds.
She admitted to a friend that she had murdered someone and that person turned her in.
I agree though she had the makings of a serial killer and that is very worrying.
There are a lot of broken families and god knows how many kids might be affected by their mother's drug use which is more common than say 40 years ago.

[Davinci7]

11:20 PM on 02/09/2012

People are asking if she killed only ONE, so why refer to the victim as "They"?I think the "they" is a Freudian slip on her part, implying she was really intent on killing more than one person---though she succeeded in killing only one. (I'm a Behavioural Psychologist btw). Mentally and emotionally she was really prepared to do the deed more than once, even if she was talking about the current victim, her mind was already "picturing" or preparing in advance the possibility of another victim. A sibling..or another neighbor kid perhaps. I assure you this is NOT A CASE OF WRONG GRAMMAR on her part! She is a Psychopath, and her brain is unable to differentiate betwen past, rpesent, and fututre. In her mind it's all occuring at once and all at the same time.

[Susan Shaffer]

04:22 AM on 02/11/2012

no it isn't bad grammar. I read another story that said she had written in her journal who the other person was to be. The police declined to release that information.
There had been some suggestion that she intended to kill her younger twin brothers and that is why she dug two graves the week before.

[draken54]

09:37 AM on 02/11/2012

It did say she dug 2 graves. That said to me that she had future plans.