Family Of Tristyn Bailey, 13, Confront Her Murderer Aiden Fucci, 16, At Court Sentencing

After pleading guilty to first-degree murder for the gruesome stabbing of 13-year-old Tristyn Bailey, Aiden Fucci was prosecuted as an adult and is awaiting his sentencing in St. Johns County Circuit Court in Florida.

On Wednesday, the second day of the 16-year-old’s sentencing phase, Tristyn’s family member read their emotional victim impact statements with the unanimous desire for Fucci to serve a life sentence in prison.

Alexis Bailey, Tristyn’s older sister, began her statement by dropping 114 aqua stone hearts into a glass jar, “one for each of the 114 stab wounds that my sister had to endure.”

“The number of questions I have for Aiden Fucci surrounding that night plague my mind,” Alexis continued. “Did she see you coming at her with a knife? Or did you stab her while she wasn’t paying attention? Did she scream out for help or was she paralyzed with agony?”

Alexis listed her questions before moving on to describing the emotional moment when her family found out about her sister’s murder. “Our family broke that day, and I don’t recognize any of us anymore,” she shakenly said.

“Aiden Fucci didn’t just take Tristyn’s life that day. He took everything from us. Our family’s sense of security, laughs, health and potential. For us, justice does not exist in this case,” Alexis explained before stating that the court’s duty is to put Fucci away for a life sentence.

“Anything short of that will be an insult not just to our justice system and community, but to our family and Tristyn’s legacy,” she concluded before adding a white stone to the jar, which would remain on the stand for each family member to add to. Each of the white stones represented something specific to them.

Each of the Baileys went into detail about the mental health struggles they have endured since Tristyn’s death, including PTSD, anxiety, anger and even difficulty breathing. According to her father, Forrest Bailey, their family has accumulated over $36,000 worth of counseling bills.

“I just don’t know about so many things, I lost a sense of myself,” he explained. “You can only begin to imagine how the pain he put her through stays with us,” he told Judge R. Lee Smith, who will have to determine Fucci’s sentence for a minimum of 40 years to life.

Stacy Bailey, Tristyn’s mother, explained that she has “very few memories” of the day she found out about her daughter’s death and instead delivered her impactful statement by sharing a few journal entries she had kept about her thoughts surrounding her daughter’s murder.

“It’s 3:00 am, I’m startled awake again, as I am every night, multiple times a night. My head is pounding in pain. My thoughts are racing. My anxiety is high. My chest is tight. The thoughts immediately start,” she recalled. “Visions flood my head how terrified she must have been. What went wrong in that moment of betrayal from someone she thought was her friend?”

Bailey then went on to explain how she imagines the stabbing to have gone and how the never-ending thoughts are embedded in her mind. She emphasizes that because of the number of defense wounds Tristyn had, she fought and suffered as Fucci took “no mercy in the 114 times” he stabbed her.

“Aiden Fucci, you have destroyed me, you have destroyed my family, you have destroyed Tristyn’s friends, you have destroyed the community that we live in.”

She concluded her statement by pleading with the judge for a life sentence, saying, “Please do not think for one second he can be rehabilitated. He is beyond saving.”