Aiden Fucci was a fourteen year old teen from Florida when he would brutally murder Tristyn Bailey
According to court documents Tristyn Bailey was a fourteen year old when she would be reported missing by her family. Soon after her body would be discovered and the teen had been stabbed over a hundred times
Police would use cameras in the area and they would find Aiden Fucci in the area at the time of her death. The officers would go to his home where they would find an assortment of bloody clothes and a knife that they would believe was the murder weapon
After being arrested and placed in the back of the police car Aiden Fucci would take a selfie with the caption “Hey guys has anybody seen Tristyn lately.”
Aiden Fucci would eventually plead guilty to the murder of Tristyn Bailey and would be sentenced to life in prison however due to his age he is eligible for a review after twenty five years
Aiden Fucci Current Information
| DC Number: | P71813 |
|---|---|
| Name: | FUCCI, AIDEN S |
| Race: | WHITE |
| Sex: | MALE |
| Birth Date: | 11/06/2006 |
| Initial Receipt Date: | 03/24/2023 |
| Current Facility: | CROSS CITY C.I. |
| Current Custody: | CLOSE |
| Current Release Date: | SENTENCED TO LIFE |
Aiden Fucci Case
Aiden Fucci, now 18-years-old, lost his appeal on Saturday regarding the conviction and life sentence for killing a fellow teenager in 2021.
He was found guilty of murdering classmate, Tristyn Bailey, and leaving her body in the woods on Mother’s Day weekend. He was 14 at the time. She was 13.
This spring, an appellate court upheld the lower court’s decision, finding Fucci “lured the victim to a secluded place in the woods,” “stabbed her over one hundred times, and inflicted forty-nine (49) defensive wounds.”
In 2023, Fucci plead guilty to killing Bailey “simply out of his desire to kill somebody and watch them die.”
Fucci was sentenced to life imprisonment and would be eligible for review in 25 years.
The appellate court, in April, issued an order, affirming the conviction and sentence from 2023. However, it disagreed with the amount of the Public Defender fee.
The appellate court stated that law calls for “a cost of $50 as a public defender application fee. Here, the trial court erroneously imposed a $100 fee. Accordingly, we reverse and remand solely for the trial court to enter an amended judgment and sentence imposing a $50 public defender application fee.”
Aiden Fucci News
The body of Tristyn Bailey, 13, was discovered on Mother’s Day, May 9, 2021, hours after the teenager was reported missing by her family. She had been stabbed and slashed, over and over and over again.
Aiden Fucci, then 14, was arrested on a first-degree murder charge in the death of Bailey. In February 2023, just before jury selection was to begin. Fucci changed his plea to guilty. On Friday, March 24, Judge R. Lee Smith sentenced Fucci to life in prison.
Here’s what happened, that night and in the months afterward.
Tristyn Bailey was one of five children of Stacy and Forrest Bailey. She lived in Durbin Crossing in northwest St. Johns County and was a student and cheerleader at Patriot Oaks Academy.
Aiden Sean Fucci, 14 at the time of the killing, was a fellow student at Patriot Oaks and lived near Bailey. Fucci’s girlfriend and other friends told investigators that Fucci often talked about killing people and specifically said he planned to drag a random person into the woods and stab them. While the records of minors under the age of 18 are sealed, State Attorney for the 7th Circuit R.J. Larizza said Fucci did not have a prior criminal record.
On the night of her death, a friend said Fucci asked for Bailey’s number, according to police reports. He convinced her to leave home and meet at a friend’s home, and video footage from a residence shows two people believed to be Fucci and Bailey walking east on Saddlestone Drive near the area where her body was later found toward the end of a retention pond. An hour and 45 minutes later, the same video seems to show Fucci heading back, alone, carrying his shoes.
An autopsy revealed Tristyn had 114 “stab or cutting wounds about her head, neck, shoulders, arms, hands and back,” according to an unredacted warrant affidavit released by the State Attorney. At least 49 of them were defensive wounds, the medical examiner said.
In Fucci’s arrest report, he confirmed being with Bailey at a mutual friend’s house and leaving with her at about 1:10 a.m. on May 9, 2021. He said he walked around awhile until getting to his Castledale Court home at about 3:30 a.m.
But an investigator said Fucci kept changing his story. Finally, Fucci said they got into an argument and he pushed Bailey to the ground, where she struck her head.
Fucci was arrested on a charge of second-degree murder in Bailey’s death. The State Attorney’s Office for the 7th Circuit later upgraded the charge to first-degree murder, premeditated, due to the brutality of the crime. Fucci was charged as an adult.
Did Aiden Fucci post a Snapchat selfie?
Yes. During the search for the missing Bailey, an investigator noticed a Snapchat message by Fucci showing him in the backseat of a patrol car taking a selfie and holding up a peace sign. The message said, “Hey guys has inybody [sic] seen Tristyn lately.” One of the responses read, “You were with her Aiden u know what happened to her
What was the evidence against Fucci?
A buck knife with a missing tip was found in the pond near her body matched a fragment lodged in Bailey’s scalp and was identified as Fucci’s. There is security video and DNA evidence. Also in his home were wet shoes and clothing with blood on them in his room, blood and dirt on the drain by the bathroom sink and wet denim jeans in a laundry basket. An empty knife sheath was found in his room, and a notebook with violent drawings. Cellphone records and emails, Snapchats, recorded phone calls and texts from jail and interviews with friends, family, teachers and fellow inmates all are further evidence in the case.
Why was Crystal Smith, Aiden Fucci’s mother, arrested?
Video surveillance at the Fucci home the day after the killing captured Crystal Lane Smith, Fucci’s mother, taking a pair of jeans from Fucci’s bedroom into the adjacent bathroom, and the video appears to show her scrubbing the jeans and showing them to another woman whose name was not released. At that point, Smith was unaware of what had happened to Bailey.
Investigators contacted the unidentified witness on May 12, 2021, at her residence. She told them Smith located a pair of damp jeans in the teen’s bedroom hamper and asked her if she saw anything on them. She said Smith also stated she washed the jeans. The witness advised she could not see anything that appeared to be blood and that she could get in trouble for washing them, according to the report.
That night, Fucci was placed with his parents in a recorded St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office holding room. Smith asked Fucci if he was sure nothing was on his clothes from the night before, according to the Sheriff’s Office. “I don’t think so, why?” Fucci asked. The warrant said Smith “could be observed giving [Fucci] a questioning look and whispered ‘Blood.’”
Police located the jeans in Fucci’s bedroom during a search warrant. The jeans and the drain of the bathroom sink tested positive for the presence of blood, the affidavit stated.
Crystal Smith was arrested in June on a charge of tampering with evidence in the case. The third-degree felony is punishable by up to five years in prison, according to Florida statutes.
What incidents has Aiden Fucci been involved in while in jail?
Sheriff’s Office incident reports document multiple instances of Fucci being involved in fights, having contraband, bullying inmates out of their commissary items, threatening them and being combative with guards and making threats against them. He has had to be pepper-sprayed and restrained on more than one occasion. An inmate also said Fucci asserted that he was “real” because he stabbed a girl face to face, unlike others who resorted to shooting someone.
How many years will Aiden Fucci spend in prison?
Judge R. Lee Smith of Florida’s 7th Judicial Circuit sentenced Fucci to life in prison on March 24. In his sentencing, Smith said Tristyn Bailey “suffered a painful, horrifying death from someone that she trusted.” He also said the crime had no motive and that it was “heinous, atrocious and cruel.”
Aiden Fucci: Everything to know about the killing of Tristyn Bailey
