Friday 11/15 9 a.m.  (AP) – A court hearing has been rescheduled for a request to vacate, correct or set aside the guilty plea of a Missouri teen for killing her 9-year-old neighbor.

Alyssa Bustamante pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and armed criminal action in the October 2009 killing of Elizabeth Olten. Bustamante now is 19 years old and was 15 at the time. They lived in St. Martins, just west of Jefferson City.

Online court records show a hearing scheduled for Friday has been moved to Jan. 30.

Bustamante was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole and ordered to serve a consecutive 30-year term for armed criminal action. She was initially charged with first-degree murder, which carries a sentence of life without parole.

 

(AP) – A Missouri teen who pleaded guilty to killing her 9-year-old neighbor wants the pleas to be vacated corrected or set aside.

Alyssa Bustamante pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and armed criminal action for the October 2009 killing of nine-year-old Elizabeth Olten in St. Martins, just west of Jefferson City. Bustamante was 15 at the time.

Bustamante’s attorney contends the teen’s due process rights were violated and that she faced cruel and unusual punishment. The lawyer also asserts Bustamante’s public defenders were not effective. A hearing was scheduled Friday in Jefferson City.

In what was described as a thrill kill, Bustamante stabbed Olten, strangled her, slit her throat and left her in a grave covered with leaves.

Bustamante was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole and ordered to serve a consecutive 30-year term for armed criminal action.

Initially, she was charged with first-degree murder, which carries a sentence of life without parole.