Missouri statute requires that inmates convicted of 2nd degree murder serve a minimum of 85 percent of their sentence.
Cole Co. Circuit Judge Pat Joyce said in court that the crime could carry a sentence of 10 years to 30 years in prison, or life, both with the possibility of parole. The Dept. of Corrections confirms that a life sentence in Missouri is 30 years, and that Bustamante would serve at least 25.5 years of that behind bars.
The armed criminal action charge carries a minimum of three years, which could run concurrent with the murder sentence or it could run consecutively.
Corrections confirms that when sentenced, Bustamante would be held at one of Missouri’s two women’s prisons in Vandalia and Chillicothe, if she’s incarcerated within the state.
Sentencing and time served are persuant to state statute 558.019.