Parole hearing for Cole County woman who killed child as a teenager

CHILLICOTHE, Missouri (KMIZ)

A Cole County woman who killed a 9-year-old as a teenager will have a chance to be released from prison on Monday.

At a hearing, the Missouri Parole Board will consider releasing Alyssa Bustamante from prison or continuing the life sentence she was sentenced to as a teenager. She is serving her sentence at the Chillicothe Correctional Center in northern Missouri.

Bustamante pleaded guilty in 2012 to killing 9-year-old Elizabeth Olten in 2009. The charges were second-degree murder and armed criminal action. Investigators say Bustamante wrote that stabbing Olten aroused her. Search crews found Olten’s body in a shallow grave in St. Martins, where the two lived.

The deal at the time would have made Bustamante eligible for parole in 2044, but in 2021 state lawmakers allowed some juvenile offenders to be eligible for parole after serving 15 years in prison, for any sentence that is 15 years or longer. Only juvenile offenders serving time for premeditated murder will not have earlier parole eligibility. One of the bill’s sponsors told ABC 17 News in 2021 that the changes were not made to help cases like Bustamante’s.

The six-member panel will hold the hearing to decide whether Bustamante can be released. The panel’s website states that the panel will discuss and review her performance in prison, her conduct and the programs she completed there, as well as “any other issues the panel deems relevant.” Victims and their families can attend the hearing and make a statement.

Olten’s mother, Patty Preiss, told ABC 17 News in a written statement that she and her husband would attend the parole hearing to “ask the parole board not to vote to release her.” Preiss said she received an automated message from the state that the parole date had been set for Mother’s Day.

“I will relive my pain for her if it makes any difference,” Preiss said. “There is very little I can do for my daughter now other than be there.”

Lawmakers have sought to exclude juvenile offenders like Bustamante, who were convicted of second-degree murder, from earlier parole. The chambers passed the measure this year in SB 754, which Gov. Mike Parson has not yet acted on. Preiss said she hopes the governor could rule on the bill, which she believes would remove Bustamante’s eligibility, before the hearing.

“I’m still hoping the governor might find time to sign the bill before Monday,” Preiss wrote. “After all, they told me they wanted to call this bill ‘Elizabeth’s Law.'”

Anji Gandhi, currently an assistant Cole County prosecutor, worked on the Bustamante case when he eventually reached the confession point. She said the family believed when the confession was being drafted that Bustamante would not be eligible for parole for decades.

“It is frustrating that the family will have to face Bustamante on Monday and revisit the gruesome facts of this case simply because the bill was not signed in time to invalidate the hearing,” Gandhi said.

The panel will need “approximately 8 to 12 weeks” to make a decision on parole eligibility. The panel may decide early release at a later date or set a new date for a hearing in one to five years.