On Friday, a 16-year-old Florida boy was sentenced to life in prison for fatally stabbing a 13-year-old classmate on Mother’s Day in 2021.
Aiden Fucci, 16, was 14 when he stabbed Tristyn Bailey at least 114 times in the woods near where the teens lived in north Florida, prosecutors said.
“This case is probably the most difficult and shocking case that this county, St. Johns County, has dealt with,” Judge Lee R. Smith said before ordering Fucci to prison for life.
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Fucci pleaded guilty just before his trial started in February, saying, “I just want to say I plea guilty, and I’m sorry for the Bailey family and my family.”
He was not eligible for the death penalty because of his age at the time of the crime. His case may be reviewed in 25 years, according to Florida law.
His attorneys had sought a 40-year sentence.
Before sentencing, the judge spoke to Bailey’s family, noting the tremendous toll the girl’s slaying had on their family.
“Allow ‘Bailey Sunday Fundays’ to return to your home,” he said, adding that Tristyn would have wanted her family to have fun again.
He also said he appreciated that her father, Forrest Bailey, was patient with the court proceedings.
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The judge’s order followed two days of testimony in a sentencing hearing. On Wednesday, members of the Bailey family read emotional victim impact statements to the court. Her older sister, Alexis Bailey, began her statement by dropping 114 aqua-colored stone hearts into a jar — one for each stab wound her sister suffered.
Fucci’s grandmother, Deborah Spiwak, also attended that hearing, pleading for mercy for her grandson on Wednesday.
“Please don’t take him out of our lives forever … I know there’s some good in Aiden,” she said.
The judge noted her comment on Friday.
“That took a lot of courage. That was not easy, for her. But it showed this court that he had a good, stable home environment,” Smith said of Fucci’s upbringing.
Fucci and his parents wrote letters to the judge, apologizing for his actions and asking for mercy.
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Investigators said Fucci had told several friends he planned to kill someone, though it wasn’t clear whether Bailey was his intended target initially.
CBS Miami reported that R.J. Larizza, the state attorney for Florida’s 7th Judicial Circuit, previously said dozens of the stab wounds were to the hands, arms, and head.
“They were defensive in nature,” he said.
In 2021, investigators said Fucci’s mother tried to wash the blood off his jeans.
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