Wednesday, November 18, 2009 at 11:32 a.m.
Read more: State, Crime, Elizabeth Olten, Missouri, Mo, Murder, Kidnapping, Hearing, Adult, Missing, Search
(AP) -- JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) - A judge has entered a not-guilty plea on behalf of a 15-year-old-girl charged as an adult in the strangulation and stabbing death of 9-year-old Elizabeth Olten.
Alyssa Bustamante appeared briefly before a Cole County judge Wednesday, just hours after she had been certified to stand trial as an adult in the Oct. 21 slaying.
Bustamante is charged with first-degree murder and armed criminal action and could face life in prison without parole if convicted.
She sat shackled with her hands at her waist, expressionless except for a hard swallow as the judge read the charges to her.
Earlier Wednesday, a police officer testified that Bustamante had confessed to killing Elizabeth because she wanted to know what it felt like to kill someone.
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JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. - A Missouri grand jury has indicted 15-year-old Alyssa Bustamante on on a charge of first-degree murder in slaying of a 9-year-old girl.
The grand jury indictment filed Wednesday accuses Bustamante of killing Elizabeth Holten by strangling her, cutting her throat and stabbing her on Oct. 21 - the day Elizabeth went missing.
She also is charged with armed criminal action for using a knife in the attack.
The charges in adult court were filed just hours after Bustamante had been certified to stand trial as an adult. She's being held in the Cole County jail with no bond.
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JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. - A Missouri judge has ordered a 15-year-old girl to stand trial as an adult for the slaying of 9-year-old Elizabeth Olten, whose disappearance last month touched off a two-day search.
Cole County Circuit Judge Jon Beetem ruled Wednesday that the crime was serious and vicious and the state had no adequate facilities or services to treat the teenage suspect if she were to remain in the juvenile court system.
The girl was identified in court by her juvenile defense attorney only as Alyssa. She was immediately arrested on an adult charge of first-degree murder following the judge's ruling.
(Copyright ©2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
