A judge has denied an appeal of the plea agreement made by the woman who when she was 15 killed nine-year-old Elizabeth Olten of St. Martins.
Alyssa Bustamante is serving a sentence of life plus 30 years for murdering Olten, her neighbor, in 2009. She had asked a Cole County Judge to set aside the plea deal based on the argument she might not have pleaded guilty to the lesser charge if she had understood that a pending U.S. Supreme Court case could have prevented a mandatory life sentence from being a possibility for her.
Bustamante could appeal today’s ruling.