Florida teen pleads responsible to fatally stabbing classmate

A Florida teenager pleaded responsible Monday to fatally stabbing a 13-year-old classmate 114 instances in 2021.

The plea deal got here as jury choice was scheduled to start Monday morning within the first-degree homicide trial of Aiden Fucci, who was 14 when Tristyn Bailey was killed, prosecutors mentioned.

“I simply wish to say I plead responsible and I’m sorry for the Bailey household and my household,” Fucci, 16, advised the decide in St. Augustine on Monday morning.

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The decide accepted the plea deal and mentioned Fucci’s sentencing can be scheduled at a later date. He faces as much as life in jail.

The woman’s household reported her lacking on Mom’s Day 2021, and her physique was discovered within the woods following a day-long search. Proof, together with video surveillance, led investigators to Fucci. He was initially charged with second-degree homicide, however the cost was upgraded due to the severity of the crime.

R.J. Larizza, the state lawyer for Florida’s seventh Judicial Circuit, mentioned throughout a information convention after Fucci’s arrest that Bailey was stabbed 114 instances. He mentioned at the least 49 of the injuries have been to the arms, arms and the top, and have been defensive in nature.

In a press release despatched Monday, St. Johns County Sheriff Robert Hardwick credited the work that investigators put into the case.

“This was an all-out company effort,” the sheriff mentioned in a press release. “The trial preparation course of is simply as tedious because the investigation itself. The detectives haven’t stopped working this case because the preliminary name we acquired.”

Hardwick famous that investigators labored with the state lawyer’s workplace in looking for a near the case.