US teen who killed for thrill jailed for life

A 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 has been sentenced to life in prison with possibility of parole.

Alyssa Bustamante, 18, pleaded guilty in January to second-degree murder and armed criminal action in the Oct 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 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 the body in woods behind their neighbourhood.

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.

She said: “I know words can never be enough and they can never adequately describe how horribly I feel for all of this. If I could give my life to get her back I would. I’m sorry.”

Elizabeth’s mother Patty Preiss sat silently 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 defence attorneys had argued for a sentence less than life in prison, saying Bustamante’s use of the anti-depressant Prozac had made her more prone to violence. They said she had suffered from depression for years and once attempted suicide.

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.

Highway patrol sergeant David Rice said Bustamante told him “she wanted to know what it felt like” to kill someone. Prosecutors also cited diaries 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. “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 search began for the missing girl.