Florida teen Aiden Fucci sentenced to life for vicious stabbing of cheerleader Tristyn Bailey, 13
A Florida teen who savagely stabbed a 13-year-old cheerleader to death was sentenced to life in prison Friday morning as the judge described his senseless desire to simply “feel what it was like to kill someone.”
Aiden Fucci, 16 — who stabbed Tristyn Bailey 114 times, then dumped her body in a wooded area near Jacksonville in 2021 — was handed the maximum sentence due to the brutal, premeditated nature of the murder, said St. Johns County Circuit Judge Lee Smith.
“This was not done out of greed. It was not done in retaliation or retribution or revenge. It was not a crime of passion,” Smith declared, according to News4Jax.com.
“It was not a crime that was committed because he felt rejected by her. It was not done in a fit of uncontrollable anger. There was no reason. There was no purpose,” he added.
“It was done for no other reason than to satisfy this defendant’s internal desire to feel what it was like to kill someone,” Smith concluded.
The judge said he considered Fucci’s age when sentencing him, noting that his brain was not fully developed when he committed the gruesome slaying at age 14, WFLA.com reported.
But the teen killer’s perplexing lack of motive showed he didn’t kill his classmate impulsively and therefore had plotted her murder, Smith said.
“She suffered a painful, horrifying death from someone that she trusted … Her screams were most likely stifled by her own suffocating lungs,” Smith said.
“There was a heightened level of premeditation in this case.”
The slaying was “up close, personal” and “shocking,” he added.
During the investigation, Fucci’s pals told authorities he openly fantasized about violence and murder in the months leading up to the killing — and that he picked the cheerleader in a fit of rage.
He would often draw pictures of mutilated bodies and allegedly later bragged about the murder in jail.
Fucci, who pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in February, apologized for the slaying in a handwritten letter that was read in court.
“I’m sorry that you didn’t get to know her that long. You did not have any long relationships with [Tristyn] and for that I’m sorry,” he wrote.
“For the community, I’m sorry I brought all this pain on every day and I’m sorry and I know my [apology] will not fix anything or bring her back but I hope it helps in some way.”
Fucci’s family members pleaded with the judge to show the teen mercy during a sentencing hearing on Wednesday.
“I’d die not being able to spend time with him sometime before I go,” Aiden Fucci’s grandmother, Deborah Spiwak, told the court.
Meanwhile, Bailey’s devastated mom said the troubled teen was “beyond saving,” and described how she’d been haunted by thoughts of her daughter’s final moments alive.
Fucci had faced 40 years to life and was not eligible for the death sentence because he committed the crime as a minor.
Fucci was set to be tried as an adult but unexpectedly entered a guilty plea on Feb. 6, the day the trial was scheduled to begin.
