Tuesday, February 7, 2012

A psychiatrist testifying for prosecutors says there is no way that an antidepressant drug could have made a Missouri teenager kill a 9-year-old neighbor girl.

Dr. Anthony Rothschild testified Tuesday in the sentencing hearing for Alyssa Bustamante, who has pleaded guilty to strangling, stabbing and slicing the throat of Elizabeth Olten of St. Martin's in October 2009.

Defense attorneys who are arguing for a sentence less than the maximum of life in prison have sought to show that the antidepressant Prozac could have contributed to Bustamante's mood
swings and violent tendencies.

But Rothschild says there is no scientific or medical evidence that Prozac causes people to commit murder. To the contrary, he says it actually can decrease hostility and aggression.

Monday, February 6, 2012

A Missouri teenager who pleaded guilty to killing a 9-year-old girl wrote in her journal that it was an "ahmazing" and "pretty enjoyable" experience.

The words from Alyssa Bustamante's journal were read aloud in court Monday as part of a sentencing hearing to determine whether
she should be sentenced to life in prison for the October 2009 murder of her neighbor, Elizabeth Olten, in a small town west of Jefferson City.

Elizabeth's mother, Patty Preiss, tearfully pleaded with the judge to give the maximum sentence possible to Bustamante, whom she repeatedly described as an "evil monster."

Bustamante pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and armed criminal action last month. She is 18 now, but was 15 at the time of the murder. She is being sentenced as an adult.