The central Missouri teenager who confessed to strangling and stabbing 9-year-old Elizabeth Olten because she wanted to know how it felt to kill someone, was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole.
STORY: WTF?!?! Teenager Says Stabbing A 9-Year-Old Was Amazing!
Alyssa Bustamante, 18, pleaded guilty in January to second-degree murder charges in the October 2009 slaying of Olten in St. Martins, MO.
According to the Associated Press, 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.
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.
In a chilling journal entry Bustamante wrote:
“I strangled them and slit their throat and stabbed them now they’re dead. 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’s defense attorneys had argued for a sentence less than life in prison, saying her use of the antidepressant drug Prozac had made her more prone to violence.
They said she had suffered from depression for years after the death of her mother and the fact that her father was in jail. They also claim once she attempted suicide by overdosing on painkillers.
