Tristyn Bailey And Aiden Fucci | What We Know So Far

[Music] mother's day may 9th 2021 sun john's county florida thirteen-year-old tristan bailey was reported missing by her parents at 10 am they had last seen her around midnight tristan bailey was described as a sweet and enthusiastic seventh grader she was a budding young cheerleader and her coach said she was cheerful spirited and friendly often uniting the team together and pushing them forward she attended patriot oaks academy which teaches around 1 500 students at around 2pm the st johns county sheriff's office made an official announcement that they were looking for the missing tristan and just several hours later a florida missing child alert was issued this alert is issued when a child is missing and believed to be in life-threatening danger but with no indication that the child has been abducted pleas were issued via various media outlets and the community and police began an extensive search to find her tragically after just 16 hours of searching the body of tristan bailey was found by a resident that had been out looking for her that day okay everybody ready everybody good okay first of all good evening and uh this was not the outcome the st johns county sheriff's office wanted or this community um however we're going to go ahead and i want to i'm going to reiterate this numerous times after this press conference during this press conference i ask you to give respect to this community and give respect to the family uh this morning approximately 10 o'clock this morning the saint johns county was notified by the family of tristan bailey that she had been she was reported missing this morning at 100 hours 10 o'clock this morning uh 13 years old white female they gave a gloating description the family last saw her last night at approximately midnight and at that time the st jones county sheriff's office and this community went to work at this this morning this was an exhausting search by the neighborhood by the st johnson county sheriff's office we have located a body that is primarily identified as tristan bailey again it's in the early stages but we will verify that through the process i will tell you this again we've notified the saint johns county school district this is a grieving community and we're going to respect that grieving community i ask you that you put this out there you help us stand behind this community and let them grieve together she was located on the south end of a retention pond just east to the cul-de-sac of saddleston drive she had been stabbed to death with 114 wounds on her body 49 of which were defensive authorities also later found a book knife which is a folding knife often used in hunting this is believed to be the murder weapon and it was discovered in a pond nearby the knife was missing the tip which was found snapped off inside tristan's head the community have been an incredible source of ongoing support since the news of tristan's disappearance and later tragic death broke the bailey family said they have felt such encouragement and love from so many smith's son aiden austin smith is a sixth grader at swiss point middle school smith came up with the idea to honor bayley for their saturday jamboree game for the jamboree game we decided to since it was so close to her death we decided to rock the fleets with the nike logo having a wing on it or fly high tristan and then we put her initials right here or tristan bailey many people in the community turned over home cctv footage to the police in a bid to help and some of this footage had in fact picked tristan up early that morning in the early hours of sunday morning tristan was spotted at 1 15 am at the north amenity center in durban crossing and half an hour later she was seen again on saddleston drive just over a mile away on both pieces of footage she was seen walking with someone at this point the case was now moving rapidly on on may 10th just before noon it was announced that the police had made an arrest and actually called 911 called the sheriff's office we went out there and actually processed the body and recovered the body since then we actually have arrested a suspect by the name of aiden fucci fucci 14 year old he's currently in custody with the department of juvenile justice charged with second-degree murder fourteen-year-old aiden fuchi was also a student of patriot oaks academy and he had grown up in the same neighborhood as tristan the teen was then charged with second-degree murder according to the arrest report a neighbour's cctv camera showed the pair walking together along saddleston drive at 1 45 am [Music] the drive is surrounded by a wooded area and as you reach the end of the drive there is a dead end which leads directly into the wooded area this location is very close to where tristan's body was found the report says one subject was wearing what appeared to be shorts a light-coloured hooded sweatshirt and white shoes with a black nike logo this description matches aiden fuchi the second subject known to be tristan was wearing black pants and a black shirt although it was initially reported that she had been wearing her cheerleading outfit the arrest report said that the person matching aiden's description was then seen walking away from the wooded area at around 3 27 am heading back down saddleston drive he was carrying a pair of white shoes which we now know to be his in his hand he later said he took them off because his feet were hurting when he was spotted walking back down saddleston drive this was almost two hours after he had been seen with tristan on the same road following this sighting police went to aidan's house to question him on may 9th just a day before he was arrested his house is located approximately 0.3 miles from the location tristan's body was found in police put him in the back of the car and while he was in the back he posted a disturbing picture to snapchat he captioned the photo hey guys has anybody seen tristan lately a search warrant for aidan's house led to the finding of multiple items of evidentiary value a forensics team worked around the clock examining these items to try and obtain any dna this process can sometimes take months but the teams at the lab tested everything rapidly and subsequently tristan's dna was found on a pair of shoes and a t-shirt that were both located in aidan's bedroom in my 20 years of investigating homicides this is probably uh one of the most tragic and uh and difficult cases that we have faced i can just tell you that the man is a cold-blooded killer and he didn't say a man he's a he's a child but he's he committed a man's crime and with that being said of course i just feel like he's being held responsible for the crime he committed so again we'll build that case with school records a lot of this stuff of course will come through court orders search warrants and talking to people that know our suspect well according to an affidavit the defendant aidan said he had been at a mutual friend's house that night with tristan before leaving they had then engaged in an argument at around 1 10am before he pushed her to the ground where she hit her head but the details of this alleged argument are unconfirmed and it remains unclear as to how the pair came to be walking together down the street on may 11th aiden appeared via zoom in volusia county regional detention center in front of circuit judge michael orfinger for a detention hearing his parents crystal and jason were present as was his lawyer anwar snowba hi can i have the parties raise your right hand please all three of you if you could raise your right hand please do each of you solemnly swear or affirm that the testimony you're going to give in this cause is the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth to help you god yes can you answer out loud please yes thank you all right thank you uh mr fuji as i said my name is judge orfinger i'm going to conduct your detention hearing uh this morning which is sometimes known as a first appearance the purpose of your detention hearing is to determine whether there is probable cause for me to believe that an act of delinquency occurred and that you are the person who committed it if i find that there is probable cause we will then discuss the terms in which the law allows you to be either released or detained all right thank you yes sir all right mr fuji you're charged with um [Music] with second-degree murder [Music] murder permitted with a depraved mind but without premeditation that is murder in the second degree although it is a first degree felony judge orfinger ordered his stay in juvenile detention for 21 days until the state attorney made their decision on whether he would be tried as an adult or not a week later jacksonville attorney anwar snober who had been retained to represent aden filed a motion to withdraw from council this was granted aidan's parents both asked for a judge to declare them indigent indigency means someone doesn't have sufficient income to afford a lawyer for defence in a criminal case aidan's mother's application was accepted but his father's was initially denied after explaining that he was self-employed and since everything had happened he was unable to find work his request was also granted this means that the 14 year old will now be represented by the public defender's office hundreds of thousands of people have signed a petition asking the state attorney's office and governor ron desantis to charge aidan fucci as an adult rather than a juvenile and also to charge him with first degree murder as opposed to second degree on may 18 the celebration of life was held to honour tristan bailey people attended the memorial at celebration church in jacksonville wearing aqua and white which were tristan's favorite colours it was extremely emotional and moving and the family and friends of tristan shared beautiful memories and positive and hopeful thoughts and feelings everyone showed such tremendous strength resilience and grace and it was clear to see what a close bond they all had you guys amaze us and the outpour of love from our community is breathtaking and we cannot thank you enough for that but i made a promise to her today that i was going to keep her memory alive i was going to make her name shine above the evil that has happened and from the goodness that has poured out from her friends our families our community and across the world i make that promise that i will do something good in her name one two three [Applause] i've left a link in the description box to the video should anyone wish to watch it on may 27 it was announced that aiden fucci would in fact be tried as an adult and his charge was also upgraded from second-degree murder to first-degree premeditated murder he was indicted unanimously by a grand jury on first degree murder charges indictment against aiden fucci for first degree murder involving our victim tristan bailey once the grand jury had done the indictment we did a transfer order which i believe some of the folks in the media had already gotten a hold of transferring the case from juvenile court to adult court the indictment is the triggering document which uh signals and and executes the move into the adult court system so tristan or aidan fucci will be tried as an adult in st john's county for first degree murder first off i want to tell you it brings me no pleasure to be charged in a 14 year old with as an adult with first degree murder but i can tell you also that the executive team and i reviewed all the facts all the circumstances the applicable law and it was not difficult decision to make that he should be charged as an adult it's a sad decision in a sad state of affairs but it was clear to us after we looked at what happened that it was not only appropriate to charge the defendant as an adult but it was really the only choice that we could make the defendant made statements to several people that he intended to kill someone he didn't say who that was but he indicated to witnesses that he was going to kill someone by taking them in the woods and stabbing them and there's additional items that we are looking at now that have been sent to the fdle lab for confirmation of blood and dna analysis here is what we know about what it means for aiden to be tried as an adult as opposed to a juvenile if he was charged as a juvenile it means he cannot legally be held in jail beyond the age of 21. adult charges automatically attached to a first degree murder indictment so when the grand jury indicted aiden of first degree murder charges on may 27th his case automatically moved out of the juvenile court and into adult felony court in his first court appearance since it was announced he would be tried as an adult judge howard m maltz laid out the charges he is facing is may 28 2021 i'm judge malts this is the first appearance in the state of florida versus aidan fuji which is case number 21-825 cf are you uh aiden fuchi yes sir okay very well uh state is here represented by mr lewis uh mr fuji is here represented by miss peoples uh good morning everybody all right mr fuji if you'll raise your right hand for me please do you saw me swear or affirm that any testimony you give today will be the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth to help god yes sir all right so let me tell you what you are charged with you have been indicted by the saint johns county grand jury on the charge of first degree premeditated murder that is a capital felony that is normally uh punishable by up to death or life imprisonment in your case because you are not yet 18 years old death is not a possible sentence pursuant to the florida and united states supreme courts but this charge does carry a maximum penalty of life imprisonment do you understand the charge against you yes sir the indictment and kps that followed set your bond at none is the state still asking that he be held without bond mr lewis that is correct judge the state's request is no bond judge molt said his first degree premeditated murder charge is a capital felony that is punishable by life in prison or the death penalty but because aiden is under the age of 18 the death penalty is automatically off the table in 2005 the u.s supreme court found the death penalty unconstitutional for defendants who were under the age of 18 at the time of their crime if convicted of first degree murder aiden could receive a maximum sentence of life in prison florida technically has parole but courts haven't granted it for some time the florida legislature abolished it for most crimes in 1983 and it was phased out for the remaining crimes by 1995. however florida law does require a judge to review the life sentence of a juvenile 25 years after their arrest at the point of the review the judge can consider a number of factors in deciding whether to change a life sentence or not these factors can include whether the victim's family objects or if the defendant still poses a risk to society regardless of what happens at that 25-year review a juvenile convicted of murder in florida must serve a statutory minimum sentence of 40 years behind bars the state attorney r.j laritza indicated that his office will be seeking life in prison but said aidan will likely be able to appeal it as part of a wider ongoing effort to reduce sentences for juveniles in florida if he were to receive a life in prison sentence he will be eligible for a review of his sentence at age 25 because he is currently a minor at this time all of these outcomes completely depend on whether or not agent changes his plea and what happens in the coming weeks and months police said there is no evidence at this time to suggest that aiden suffers from any psychological conditions or issues and he has no previous criminal history the motive for this senseless and horrific attack at this point remains unknown however authorities allege that aidan told people in the days before tristan's murder that he was planning to kill someone within the month he didn't say who but he spoke of plans to take someone into the woods and stab them so far authorities have refused to disclose whether the murder was sexually motivated and according to records so far there is no indication of sexual assault what they can confirm however is that they found aidan's dna on tristan's body but what that dna is again is unconfirmed there are also some people on social media who have published posts suggesting they were part of the crime too or have said they knew other people may have been involved these accounts and statements have been investigated by officers and will most likely continue to be investigated but the saint john's county sheriff's office said the accounts and people they had looked into had nothing to do with the murder the sheriff's office says at this time there are no other suspects in the crime apart from aidan but they are investigating the possibility that someone could have been involved as an accessory after the fact a felony arraignment date was set for june 10th this is where aiden would plead guilty or not guilty but on june 3rd aiden fucci's attorney entered a written plea on aiden's behalf this was a plea of not guilty i want to turn to a developing story on our first coast aidan fuji pleading not guilty to killing his classmate tristan bailey in st john's county the eighth grader is charged with first-degree murder premeditated in the may 10th stabbing of a seventh grade girl it has also been reported that since he is now being tried as an adult he is being held without bond at duval county jail in jacksonville although there is space for juveniles there he is being separated from the adult inmates inside on june 5th it was reported that aiden's mother crystal is now facing a charge of tampering with evidence after she turned herself into authorities year old crystal lane smith was arrested and booked in the saint johns county jail saturday morning at 11 50. smith was charged with tampering with evidence which is a third degree felony in florida the arrest warrant says after fuchi went with investigators on may 9 for questioning in bayley's killing smith was seen on surveillance video inside her home washing fuchi's blue jeans which later tested positive for blood the drain in the sink where smith was seen washing the genes also tested positive for blood according to the warrant gene nichols a local attorney says the mother's arrest took so long because investigators were most likely questioning her nichols says although the mother was charged with a third degree felony he doubts anything will be done until fuji's case is done she will present to felony court the same way her son dead in front of a judge nichols says he doubts the saint johns county sheriff's office will give the mother prison time i am sure that mr lariza's office recognizes that this was a mother trying to protect her child and made some very bad decisions in order to try to protect her child a gofundme campaign has been set up to help support the bailey family and raise money for a memorial for tristan which i've also linked in the description box we will update everyone as best we can as soon as more information and details become available on this case

Channel: Truly Criminal

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Length: 21min 44sec (1304 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 08 2021