A Florida teen who kil*led a 13-year-old cheerleader with a knife was given a life sentence on Friday morning. He did it to “feel what it was like to k*ill someone,” which was a stupid reason, according to the judge.
He sta*bbed Tristyn Bailey 114 times and then hid her body in the woods near Jacksonville in 2021. Aiden Fucci was 16 years old. Judge Lee Smith of St. Johns County said that Aiden Fucci got the longest possible sentence because the mu*rder was so brutal and well-planned.
“This wasn’t done out of greed.” It wasn’t done to get even or get back at someone. News4Jax.com notes that Smith said it was not a crime of passion.
“He didn’t break the law when he did it because she turned him down.” It wasn’t done out of anger and couldn’t be stopped. It did not make sense. He added, “There was no point.”
Smith said, “The only reason this defendant did it was to test his inner desire to know what it’s like to ki*ll someone.”
A judge said that Fucci’s age was taken into account when he chose how to punish him. WFLA.com said he said that his brain wasn’t fully developed when he ki*lled the girl when he was 14.
Smith thought it was strange that the teen k*iller didn’t have a reason for ki*lling his classmate. This meant that he didn’t do it on the spot, but had planned to k*ill her.
“Someone she trusted ki*lled her in a horrible, painful way…”Smith said, “It’s likely that her suffocating lungs kept her from screaming.”
Many things were planned ahead of time in this case.
Besides that, he said the kil*ling was “close up, personal, and shocking.”
During the investigation, Fucci’s friends told the police that he openly fantasised about violence and m*urder in the months before the m*urder and that he picked the cheerleader because he was mad.
He would often draw bodies that had been cut up, and while he was in jail, he is said to have broken down and bragged about k*illing someone.
In February, Fucci admitted to ki*lling the person in the first degree. He told the judge he was sorry for the de*ath in a letter that was read in court.
“I’m sorry you didn’t spend much time with Tristyn,” he wrote. A lot of people had long-term relationships with her.
“I’m sorry I caused the community so much pain every day. I’m sorry.” Though I know it won’t change anything or bring her back, I hope it helps in some way.
Fucci’s family asked the judge to be kind to the teen during the sentencing hearing on Wednesday.
Denise Spiwak, Aiden Fucci’s grandmother, told the judge, “I’d die not being able to spend time with him sometime before I go.”
At the same time, Bailey’s sad mother said that the troubled teen was “beyond saving.” It kept her up at night to think about the last moments her daughter had with her.
Fucci was facing 40 years to life in prison. He could not get the de*ath penalty because he did the crime when he was a minor.
Fucci was supposed to be tried as an adult, but on February 6, the day the trial was supposed to start, he shocked everyone by pleading guilty.
