Mid-Missouri teen killer wants guilty plea set aside

A Mid-Missouri woman who as a teenager wrote that killing a young neighbor girl was an “ahmazing” thrill is now asking a judge to overturn her guilty plea.

Alyssa Bustamante testified in court Thursday that she wouldn’t have pleaded guilty to the 2009 slaying of 9-year-old Elizabeth Olten if she’d known about a pending U.S. Supreme Court case involving juvenile murder defendants.

Bustamante had been facing a first-degree murder charge punishable by life without parole. She pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in January 2012 and was sentenced to life with the chance of parole.

The Supreme Court later ruled that mandatory life prison sentences for juveniles were unconstitutional.

Bustamante’s new attorney is citing that case as a reason to undo the plea agreement.