Lawyers Want Murder Suspect to Wear Own Clothing to Trial

Lawyers for a central Missouri teenager charged with killing her 9-year-old neighbor want the suspect to appear in court in her own clothes. Sixteen-year-old Alyssa Bustamante has a pretrial hearing scheduled Monday in Cole County Circuit Court in Jefferson City. Defense lawyers filed a motion this week seeking to let Bustamante wear her own clothing at all court appearances. They say pretrial images of the teen in jail clothing would impair the presumption of innocence. Bustamante is charged as an adult with first-degree murder and armed criminal action in last October's killing of Elizabeth Olten, whose body was found in a wooded area just west of Jefferson City. Bustamante has pleaded not guilty.