Aiden Fucci, 16, Pleads Guilty To First-Degree Murder Of Schoolmate, Tristyn Bailey, 13

On February 6, Aiden Fucci, 16, pleaded guilty to the first-degree murder of 13-year-old schoolmate, Tristyn Bailey. With this plea, Fucci is facing 40 years to life in prison. The sentencing hearing will take place in March or April of this year when Fucci will be able to make another statement.

According to video evidence from a house in Jacksonville, Florida, Fucci and Bailey had been walking together around 1:30 a.m. on May 9, 2021. Then in a video from the same house, Fucci is seen walking back alone around 3:30 a.m. and carrying white Nike shoes. At 10 a.m. that same day Bailey was reported missing by her parents.

At 6 p.m. the St. John’s Sheriff’s Office receives a call about a dead body in the woods not far from Fucci’s house which was quickly identified as Bailey’s body. The young middle schooler was stabbed 114 times and died from sharp force trauma.

Around 9 p.m. Fucci and his parents were placed in the Sheriff’s interview room for holding. A few hours later, the Fucci residence was searched and investigators found a knife sheath, a pair of white Nike shoes with blood on them, a t-shirt with blood on it and a pair of wet denim jeans.

At 3:30 a.m. on May 10, Fucci was arrested on the charge of second-degree murder.

On May 27, Fucci entered a plea of not guilty on the new charges of first-degree murder after one of Fucci’s friends revealed he had previously talked about stabbing someone in the woods.

On June 5, Crystal Smith, Fucci’s mother, was arrested for tampering with evidence. It is believed that she had tried washing the blood off of her son’s clothes before they had been taken in for questioning.