Criminology - Tristyn Bailey

Episode Date: April 9, 2023

On May 9th, 2021, Mother's Day, the Bailey family woke up to find their 13-year-old daughter Tristyn Bailey missing. It appeared as though she had not slept in her bed the night before. They quickly called the police, who began to search for Tristyn. A jogger happened upon her body near a retention pond in St. Johns, Florida, later that day. Join Mike and Morf as they discuss the murder of Tristyn Bailey. It didn't take long for police to zero in on a suspect. Within three hours of the jogger finding Tristyn's body, they had a 14-year-old boy named Aiden Fucci and his parents in an interrogation room. Aiden and his parents made some interesting statements on video while investigators were out of the room. As the truth unfolded, everyone was shocked by what just exactly happened to Tristyn Bailey. You can help support the show at patreon.com/criminology An Emash Digital production Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Subscribe now to moms and mysteries wherever you get your podcast. Criminology is a true crime podcast that may contain discussion about violent or disturbing topics. Listener discretion is advised. Hello everyone and welcome to episode 252 of the criminology podcast. I'm Mike Ferguson. And this is Mike Morford. Morf. How you doing, man? I'm doing great. Loving life here in Florida, having a little bit of heat wave. How about you? There's a warming up there in Ohio yet?

Yeah, it was actually in the 70s yesterday, which I couldn't believe. and I'm sure it'll waffle back and forth for a while like it does up here. But, you know, we're not too far from it being warm and being able to get out on a daily basis. And I'm looking forward to that. Yeah. The only bad thing about the switching the weather is the storms that are growing and the tornadoes that are spawning, all those people that are getting affected by that. You know, my heart goes out to everyone that's in those areas. Yeah, there has been a lot of weather events lately.

Let's go ahead and give our Patreon shoutouts. We had donations from Simon Jones and Gary Mazzero. So we appreciate that support very much. Yeah, thanks so much for going out of the way to support the show. It means a lot to us. Anyone that would like to support criminology can do so by going to patreon.com slash criminology. All right. Let's dive right in.

On this week's episode, we're going to discuss a case that's been in the headlines recently due to a plea deal and sentencing. This crime happened close to Mother's Day, 2021, and was just wrapped up legally last month. So, you know, with Mother's Day right around the corner, in this case being in the news lately, it seemed like an appropriate time to cover this case. We're talking about the murder of Tristan Bailey. Tristan Bailey was born on January 18, 2008 to Stacey and Forst Bailey. Stacey told the St. Augustine record that her daughter Tristan was the loudest one in the nursery. recalling the big personality she was born with. Tristan had five siblings, and the family would call themselves the Bailey Seven.

Tristan attended Patriot Oaks Academy, where she also was a cheerleader on the Infinity All-Stars cheer team. Patriot Oaks Academy principal Allison Olson told the St. Augustine record, Tristan's thoughtfulness and her caring made her light to everybody around her. Her older sister, Brittany, said that Tristan had a contagious laugh and the most beautiful smile I've ever seen in my life. It was clear that Tristan was well-liked and touched everyone around her. That's why so many people were shocked when they found out what happened to her. On May 9, 2001, Mother's Day, the body of 13-year-old Tristan Bailey was found next to a small retention pond in St. John's, Florida.

St. Johns is a city about 20 miles southeast of Jacksonville, a jogger had spotted her while passing by, but Tristan had not drowned, and her death was not an accident. According to the St. Augustine record, she had significant injury to her head and other trauma. Police officers had been looking for her since her family reported her missing earlier that morning. Surveillance video had shown that she and another person were walking in the neighborhood between 1230 and 1.15 a.m. When her family thought she was asleep in her room. At 1.45 a.m., she was spotted with someone on a different surveillance camera, this time walking east on Saddlestone Drive.

Tristan has never seen, walking back the way she came, but at 3.30 a.m., someone was caught on camera running away from Saddlestone Drive. They were carrying a pair of white tennis shoes as they ran through the darkness. It was at 10 a.m. that Tristan's mom, Stacey, called 911 to report her missing. They realized she wasn't home and hadn't been in her bed overnight. The family had arrived home late the night before at 11.45 p.m. and all had gone to sleep soon after. In the morning, when her sister went to make sure she was awake for their Mother's Day breakfast, Tristan wasn't there, and that understandably started a panic. At 6.6 p.m., the jogger, Daniel Hart, called 911 to report what he had found. Officers responded to the woods just east of the cul-de-sac on

Saddle Stone Drive, where a home security camera had last spotted Tristan walking around 145 a.m. Hart told police that the young girl's body was in the woods about 30 yards south of a barbed wire fence at the southern end of the pond. And more, if you and I both have kids, I'm just thinking about this scenario in my head. You know, you go to bed at night. And one of the things that I always do before I go to bed, because everybody else goes to bed before me, is I walk around all the rooms, I open up the doors, I check on everybody. It's just kind of my routine. I'm thinking about this particular scenario where, you know, the family wakes up and they realize that one of the kids is not there and hasn't been there, hasn't slept in their bed. It's a feeling that it's hitting me, like down in my stomach, just thinking about what that would be like.

Yeah, it's her family waking up and her not being there when she should be there. That had to be pretty troubling for them. and then they probably had a lot of things going through their head. Where is she? What happened to her? Why isn't she here? Well, and the other thing that that kind of jumped out of me was, you know, a jogger finding Tristan's body. And this is something that we see in a lot of cases, whether it's a hunter, you know, kids out walking in the woods, a jogger, a cyclist.

You know, somebody's out doing something, kind of an everyday routine. and they stumble upon something that, you know, has to change their lives forever. You know, finding the body of a 13-year-old girl, that's going to be tough to live with. Obviously, you didn't do anything. You know, we're under that assumption. But still, that would be tough. Yeah, that's got to be really shocking. Something like you mentioned, you're not going to forget.

But it's because of these people that are out there doing these things that sometimes these victims are found and it enables the police to get started on their investigation sooner. And I think that really helped in this case. When police arrived and surveyed the crime scene, they got a full understanding of just how savage Tristan's death was. An autopsy would later reveal that Tristan had been stabbed 114 times with many of the wounds being defensive in nature, suggesting that she was alive to suffer through every last one. According to News 4 Jacksonville, at least 35 wounds were to the head and neck. The knife used to kill her was found in the pond near her body with the tip broken off.

The tip itself was recovered during her autopsy. The knife had broken during the attack and was lodged in Tristan's head. There was no sign of sexual assault found, but there were handprints on Tristan's thighs. that could not have been from her own hands. Florida State Attorney R.J. Larissa told news for Jacksonville of Tristan's murder to say that it was horrific, could arguably be made as an understatement. Tristan's family was left to deal with the shock and grief of what happened to the popular 13-year-old, and they wondered who would do something so awful and why.

But police were hot on the trail of the person they believed. had killed Tristan. I think we've got to pause and talk about the attack on Tristan. The amount of stab wounds Tristan suffered is just shocking. 114 stab wounds just seems really like it could be interpreted as a case of overkill or some people might say a crime of passion. It definitely indicates some kind of rage. Well, you and I have done a number of cases, many cases, involving stabbings.

and oftentimes we see large number of stab wounds, 30, 40. This really jumped out at me, 114 stab wounds, 35 of which were to the head and neck, to a 13 year old girl. So you mentioned the word overkill. And you also said something about, you know, crime of passion. I think that number alone puts police immediately onto some type of of rage. This has got to be a killer that knew the victim had something against the victim because why the need for 114 stab wounds? I think one break that the police got was that they were

able to recover that knife in the pond near her body. So I think that was important because in a lot of cases like this, a murder weapon might not ever be recovered, but in this case it was. Well, I think they had a couple of things to work with. As you mentioned, this jogger found Tristan's body quickly, which allowed the police to get started quickly and then the recovery of the murder weapon. You know, in many cases, that doesn't happen. And it's a big clue. By 8.49 p.m., less than three hours after Tristan's body was discovered, 14-year-old Aiden Fucci and his parents were in the interrogation room of the St. John's County Sheriff's Office. Fucci, like Tristan, also attended Patriot Oaks Academy and lived in the Durban crossing area of St. John's Florida.

Though they lived near each other and went to the school together, they weren't that close. One of Tristan's friends told investigators that Aidan Fucci had asked for Tristan's number the night she was killed. Fun records show that he called her at 1225 a.m. And the police theorized that he convinced her to sneak out and go to a friend's house with him that night. The interrogation of Aidan Fucci was recorded by a. police when officers stepped out of the room. Fucci's mother, Crystal, questioned her son about whether he was sure his clothes from that night would be clean. According to the St. Augustine record, Aidan responded, I think so. Why? Blood. Crystal whispered with a questioning look.

So police, during the interrogation, had already established that they thought it was Aden in the surveillance footage. And then you have Aiden's mother, you know, asking him whether his clothes from that night would be clean. And, you know, it's obvious from what she whispers that she's worried that police will find blood on his pants. Yeah. And I don't know how it sounds to you, but to me it sounds almost not concern as if he did it or not, but more concern of has he got rid of what might incriminate him if he did do it. Well, I think a lot of people have looked at it that way, have taken it that way. You know, I don't know.

I mean, as a parent, you're in there with your child and police are questioning them. I'm sure you're going to be very defensive. Now, Aidan's father, Jason, knew that they were being recorded and told his ex-wife and son, we shouldn't be talking in here. But that warning didn't stop. Crystal and Aden, they did a lot of talking. She asked him, you know they found this girl, right? And he tried to play it off like he didn't know anything about the situation asking,

is she good? Crystal explained to her son that he was facing real trouble saying she's dead. That's why this is very important. It's all on you right now. And he asked, how is it my problem? She explained that he was the last person who had seen her alive. Jason Fucci asked his son, you have no scrapes or nothing on you, right? And Aiden confidently answered that he didn't have a scratch on him.

Aden's parents tried to find an answer for every little thing that didn't add up. They asked him why it took so long to make it home if he had really left his friend's house when he said he did and headed straight for his house. Crystal asked him, did you just walk really slowly home? It had taken him almost three hours to walk a mile and a half. They asked him why his clothes and shoes were wet when he got home, and he said it was because he spilled water on himself. Jason said to his son, that Snapchat that you did was not very smart.

He was referring to a photo Aiden took of himself in the back of a police car with the caption, Hey guys, has anybody seen Tristan lately? There's also a video of him in the back of the police car smiling and goofing around, seemingly without a care in the world. In the video, Aidan said, having fun in a fucking cop car. So I get it more if this kid's 14 years old.

And 14 year olds don't always make the best decisions. But you have his father, Jason, saying to him, you know, this stuff that you did wasn't very smart. And he's absolutely right. Whether you had something to do with it or not, it seems so callous to take a picture of yourself in the back of a police car and then put a. caption on it that says, Hey guys, has anybody seen Tristan lately?

Oh, and by the way, he spelled anybody wrong. I mean, you got to wonder, what was this kid thinking? And then, you know, taking a video of himself and cussing. And I mean, it's just really bad decision making. And that's if you didn't have something to do with it. Well, and I guess if you did have something to do with it, it's still bad decision making, but I just don't understand why some people, and in this case, some kids do what they do. I mean, where is their head at? And I think we're going to be asking that question about Aiden quite a bit.

Yeah, and the surprising thing to me is that he's just not scared at all, whether he did it or didn't do it. You'd think a 14-year-old kid being hauled into a police station would be frightened. And here, he's sort of cocky and arrogant and definitely coming across as. insensitive and not worried about why he's there. No, because he's joking around. So if you know the situation at all, why would you be joking around? I guess that's the biggest question I have.

And I just go back to some kids just, they just don't make good decisions. Some adults, too, for that matter. But, you know, especially kids, it's sometimes hard to figure out where their head is that. Aiden had misled officers earlier in the day when they asked Tristan's friends and classmates where she could possibly be. According to Jacksonville.com, Aidan described a place to like chill out and do acid or just smoke

weed at the end of a trail that goes super deep down there. Investigators would later realize he was just trying to lead them away from the real location of Tristan's body. Aidan Fucci claimed that he had seen her the night she was killed, but they had been at a friend's house together. Just before 2 a.m. He realized he was late getting home. He told police, I just had to leave or else my mom would like seriously just kill me. He said to police that they started walking home together, but didn't mention taking her into the woods and killing her.

Eventually, Aidan told his parents that he and Tristan had kissed that night. Jason Fucci asked his son, so you're your... DNA is going to be on her. Aiden claimed that she had grabbed him when they kissed, implying that she had touched his genitals, which made him mad, so he pushed her. According to him, she fell down and he walked home. He claimed that this was the last time he had seen Tristan, but that he left her alive. He also tried to create suspicion of a possible drug dealer, saying maybe she got picked up by her dealer. Jason said to Aiden, this is a hell of a bad time, bad spot, leaving a 13-year-old girl by herself in the middle of the

streets at three o'clock in the morning, or whatever time is not smart, bro. It was almost as if Jason was trying to teach his son a lesson in chivalry and safety. He went on, though, to say, walking home with her in the middle of the night, that was not smart either. You stay away from females. Anything could happen. So, more if I want to just take a minute here and kind of talk about the parents, Crystal and Jason.

You know, we've touched on some of the things that they've said during the interrogation. some of these things were recorded and are of record. I get the sense. And I'm not saying I'm completely right here, but I get the sense that Crystal is extremely worried that the police are going to find evidence of Aden's guilt. And then from Jason, I don't get the sense as much that he's thinking his son was involved.

More of like he's not happy with some of, like, he's not happy with some of the choices he made and that, you know, he's thinking that Aiden put himself in a bad position, but not really thinking that he had anything to do with it. What is your sense? Yeah, there's definitely some kind of different approach from each of his parents where his mom is more about what's going to tie you to this. And if you did it, did you cover your tracks? That's the vibe I get from her. Whereas his dad is, being realistic saying, hey, this stuff doesn't look good for you, and he's pointing out things that are concerning. But some people might make the argument that his mom, her motherly instincts

to protect her son to want him to be okay and do whatever it takes to keep him okay. Maybe that's kicking in, and she's sort of in protective mode and not really even shown concern that Tristan was killed just that if or some did it, how he might be able to get away with it if he covered his tracks. Yeah, I'm not really, you know, bad mouthing either one of them. I'm just kind of trying to break down the, as you said, vibe that I'm getting from each of the parents as this interrogation was happening. Crystal Fucci said to Aiden, I just don't see why you kissed.

And then all of a sudden she grabbed you and then you pushed her. It's a story that just doesn't seem to add up. She asked him about that part of the story again. Did she really grab you and you just really pushed her or was that? And then Crystal's voice trailed off. But Aidan assured her that Tristan had really grabbed him. Aidan's father warned him not to change his story saying, you better find your story and stay to it.

And Crystal added, yeah, they don't like all that switching back and forth stuff. The interaction between Aiden and his parents was almost hard to believe. It was clear that their son was suspected of murdering Tristan. But, you know, kind of as we talked about, you know, it's almost as if they were calmly, you could use the word nonchalantly guiding him, what to say, what to do. Obviously, they're worried about their son. I think that would hold true for everyone. I don't know that every parent would, you know, have the conversation the same way that these two did.

But all of it is happening while they're being recorded. They know they're being recorded. So that's one thing that kind of really jumped out at me as well. They're saying some things here that you wouldn't think some people would say on camera. Even if police are out of the room, they still know that they're being recorded. Yeah. I don't know what your take is, but I'm a little bit surprised that they didn't get an attorney and say, we don't want to say anything. We'll get an attorney. You can talk to our attorney and end it right there.

Well, I think if you asked any attorney, they would say, that's what you should do. But, you know, in the moment, do people always think about that? And I'm looking at it from the standpoint of the parents thinking, well, we'll just go in. We'll answer the questions. You know, our son didn't have anything to do with it, but then you get caught kind of in, you know, the police coming out and saying, you know, hey, we know it's you on surveillance video. You know, is that the point where you stop it and say, oh, we can't answer any questions? It should have been, but that's not how they handle it. Yeah, and it's clear that Crystal is obviously worried for her son, though he seemed not to

understand that he was facing severe consequences and that his life would never be the same. She said to her ex-husband Jason, They're going to make it rough on him, ask him the same question to make sure he gives the same answer. She then turned to her son and said, They're going to badger you and badger you and badger you and badger you till your answer changes, or even goes off a little bit.

And to be fair, this kind of questioning has happened before. The murder of 12-year-old Stephanie Crow comes to mind. Her 14-year-old brother, Michael, and two of his friends, were relentlessly interrogated by investigators, using high pressure interrogation tactics. And eventually they all falsely confessed. I don't think Crystal Smith was wrong to be worried that her son would fold under pressure whether it was guilty or not. The difference here is that investigators really didn't need his confession.

They had phone records, surveillance footage, his knife, and blood on his clothing. It turns out that police also discovered that Aiden had previously described the fantasy of the exact murder scenario in which Tristan was killed. Well, I will say this, Morph, my feelings and thoughts on this subject have changed over the years. And part of that is what you and I do and have done for many years. Part of that is the light that has been shed on false confessions and the police tactics that have led to some of those false confessions. I think many years ago, I would have thought, okay, let's just go in. let's answer their questions. You didn't have anything to do with it.

You didn't have anything to do with it. We'll be okay. I don't feel that way anymore. I would be much more guarded. I personally would take the attorney route because I've seen what can happen. I'm not saying all police do this, but it's a fact that this does happen. You know, she was right to say they're going to badger you.

They're going to badger you. and some people, after intense interrogation, fold. And they'll say whatever they have to say to get out of that room. We know that has happened, and it's led to false confession. I think what's ironic here, though, is that despite them being worried about that, the police really aren't badgering him. They're just sitting in this room being recorded and talking about all this stuff, and the police really don't have to do any badgering because they're just spilling it all.

to be reported. Well, and like you said, they had a bunch of evidence, right? So they don't need necessarily to coax a confession out of Aden Fucci. Hours later at 1244 a.m. Officers searched the home that Aiden Fucci lived in with his mother and his stepfather. Surveillance video from the home showed him arriving home at 3.30 a.m. Holding his white Nike shoes in his hands.

When he was alone with his parents in the interrogation room, they asked Aiden why he wasn't wearing his shoes when he walked home. Aidan said, because my feet were hurting and those shoes give me blisters. The shoes were wet when investigators got to them. An empty knife sheath and eight pocket knives were found in Aden Fucci's room. At 3.30 a.m., Aidan Fucci was formally arrested on charges of second-degree murder. this was almost exactly 24 hours after he was believed to have killed Tristan. And one thing that really jumped out at me here was that, you know, we talk about in so many cases how in the present day, the proliferation of surveillance video, seems like everybody's got

a doorbell camera or, you know, outside cameras is catching a lot of things, whether it's a murderer walking down the street, kind of giving police a timeline. Here we have the perpetrators' security surveillance video from their own home, catching them kind of giving clues away. Yeah, I think it really helps to tie. In the suburbs of D.C., a woman fails to show up for work and is found brutally murdered. I wonder what's emergency. We just walked in the door and there's blood in the foyer.

For the next two decades, the case remained unsolved until new technology allowed investigators to do what had once been impossible. A new series from ABC Audio in 2020, Blood and Water. Listen now, wherever you get your podcasts. I up any loose ends or in the timeline, especially for police, because they have evidence, as we mentioned. Now they have this surveillance footage that sort of helps make everything concrete for them. And the other thing is that, again, some of the things that Aiden is saying, they just don't seem to make sense, right? Why were you not wearing your shoes? All my feet were hurting.

You're 14 years old. You're wearing Nike shoes. Your feet are not going to be hurting. On May 27, 2021, prosecutors announced their intentions to try 14-year-old Aden Fucci as an adult and to increase the charge to first-degree murder. He was moved to an adult facility in St. John's County, where he was held without bail. On June 3, 2021, Aden Fucci entered his initial plea. He said he was not guilty of the murder of Tristan Bailey. Just two days later, Fucci's mother, Crystal Lane Smith, was arrested in charge with evidence tampering.

Surveillance video from Aden's home on the night of May 9th showed that Crystal went into his bedroom and took a pair of jeans into the bathroom and scrubbed them in the sink. She also took the jeans into the master bedroom. According to the St. Augustine record, when she emerged from the room with the jeans, Crystal and her son can be seen inspecting the jeans several times, before she put them away in his room. Later, the jeans which Aden Fucci was believed to have been wearing

when he attacked Tristan would be retrieved by an officer, still damp inside of a clothes hamper. They tested positive for blood, and so did the sink that Crystal had been scrubbing them in. Now we're talking about surveillance, footage and how it helps in these cases. But a lot of times the surveillance footage is from outside of a home. Here we have surveillance footage that comes from inside the house.

I don't know how common that is, but it just seems odd to me, at least to have surveillance video within your home, within these bedrooms and whatnot. Yeah, I don't know if that's the norm. I think a lot of people have, like I said, the doorbell cameras, the outside type of video cameras. They might have one camera inside their house that's, you know, kind of in a central location. I don't know how many people have cameras in all these different rooms. Recording your master bedroom and, you know, it sounds like there was surveillance video in the bathroom. Yeah. It seems like an invasion of privacy almost. When my alarm was installed,

I didn't want video surveillance inside my home, but the technician made it a point to say, by the way, we can't do any video surveillance inside your home. And I was like, well, that doesn't matter. I don't want it inside my house anyway. But so I, you're right. I don't know how normal that is, but in this case, it definitely helped the case against Aiden. Well, because it's very damning, right? I mean, just think about Aiden's mother crystal scrubbing jeans. They're inspecting them. I mean, it's not too hard to figure out what she's doing. And just like a lot of people, she doesn't realize that it's very hard to get rid of blood on the jeans and the sink. I mean, the tools that investigators have now are pretty sophisticated.

In mid-July, 2021, documents revealed that at least one of Fucci's friends had been aware of his homicidal fantasies that Aidan had. Aiden had described to this friend, dragging a random person into the woods and stabbing them. According to News 4 Jacksonville, Fucci's girlfriend, an eighth grade girl, admitted that he had named his knives, picker and poker, and had suddenly jumped behind her and held a knife to her neck, pretending to slit her throat on multiple occasions. The knife Fucci called Picker was at his girlfriend's house. but poker, a folding buck knife matched the description of the knife that was used to kill Tristan. Aden's girlfriend also told investigators that Aden would hear voices when he got angry. Detectives found notebooks full of drawings of a violent nature in Fucci's room. Some of the drawings depicted a satanic element to them, such as a pentagram, and others were much more concerning,

including a drawing of a nude female, with red exes over her breasts and genitals and what appeared to be blood coming from several wounds. One of Tristan's friends told the Mercury News that Aden Fucci was the textbook definition of what you would call a numb kid. He has no feelings towards anyone, no feelings towards himself. According to St. John's County detectives, no one ever reported any of Aden Fucci's behaviors or threats. he had no criminal record prior to being arrested for murder and Tristan Bailey. Now, some people might argue that Aidan was a lot like other teen boys who just got into gore or fantasy, and in the end it's harmless, only in this case it wasn't harmless.

You have to wonder if some of these teens that get these fantasies of murder may get their ideas from attacks from the past, especially well-known cases, like the Slender Man Stabbing, which inspired movies. Two years before the Slender Man Stabbing, two 16-year-old girls, and killed their supposed friend, 16-year-old Skyler niece for no apparent reason. One of the killers, Rachel Schroof, was sentenced to 30 years in prison in 2014. She's already eligible for parole and will have a hearing on May 9th. Juvenile sentenced to life are usually still eligible for parole and much earlier than adult offenders.

This is part of why prosecutors made the decision to try Aden Fucci as an adult. In mid-July, Crystal Smith pleaded not guilty on the evidence-tampering charge, Florida State Attorney R.J. Larissa told the St. Augustine record, tampering with evidence, is tampering with justice, and cannot be excused or tolerated. According to Jacksonville.com, Crystal wrote a letter to the judge, somewhat explaining her actions, writing, as a mother, the love you have for your child is difficult to articulate to others unless they're a mother themselves. Crystal claimed she was worried for her son's future. From a mother pleading on behalf of the life of her adolescent son, please show my aid and mercy. He is not beyond saving.

So I get it more if that, you know, a mother would be extremely worried about her son. She's saying here, please show him mercy. He's not beyond saving. I understand why she would write that. But I think it would be hard for a lot of people to understand, trying to cover up a murder, even for your son, trying to get rid of evidence, trying to scrub away the jeans. You know, where is the line? How far are you willing to go to protect your child? And I think that's a question that, you know, a lot of parents would wrestle with. We'd do anything for our kids. But what does anything mean? Yeah, we talked a little bit earlier that Crystal seemed like she was being, you know, had that motherly instinct to protect her son. And here she's verifying it that she's worried about him and she sort of admits to why she did this.

And I think we've covered so many cases in which, you know, a parent would support their child, even if they did the unthinkable, and stand by them and help them get through it. but we also talk about cases where they go above and beyond and try to help them escape justice and get away with the crime. And it seemed like that was going on here. Well, and I think her actions kind of dovetail back to what we talked about in the interrogation room. We were getting that vibe from the things that she was saying to Aden. They seemed to kind of match with her actions that were. caught on video.

If Aden Fucci was remorseful, it didn't seem evident. Because while Tristan's family grieved her sudden senseless loss, Aiden texted his local one from a tablet in the Duval County Jail saying, playing candy crush, day going real slow. I guess no commissary came in, so I figure I'm just going to play some candy crush. Just like when he was in the interrogation room and didn't seem to grasp the severity of the situation, Aiden didn't seem to care that he was in jail either. His only care was charging his tablet and that he couldn't play any games that connected to the internet.

Fellow inmates at the jail reported that Aiden looked down on them because, as one of them told news for Jacksonville, most of us are in here for shooting someone and killing them. And he says he's real because he stabs his victims face to face. The inmate added that it's like he, meaning Aden, gets high off of it or something. On December 25th, 2021, Aden Fucci started to fight by punching another inmate. Officers reported that he had been relentless in his threats against two particular inmates, even threatening to stab them. On January 20th, 2022, it was reported by News 4 Jacksonville that Aden Fucci was using fear

in order to extort commissary items from other inmates. When his cell was searched for the stolen items, he became a little. highly agitated and made threats against the officer's lives. One officer was quoted as saying, Inmate Fucci made threats to kill our families while beating on his cell door in a loud, vicious manner. On October 5, 2022, Aden Fucci was pepper sprayed and placed in restraints after officers found an excess of books and magazines in his cell, and he refused to let the guards take the items in question. Shannon shot, an attorney and juvenile law expert, told news, Jacksonville, that incidents like that are the reality of children being incarcerated.

In February, 2003, Fucci, who is now 16 years old, changed his mind about facing trial. Just days before jury selection began, he pleaded guilty to the first-degree murder of Tristan Bailey. He was facing between 40 years in life in prison. Tristan's family didn't want a plea deal for Aden Fucci. In a statement posted on court TV, they said, just as Tristan fought for her life, we equally flat for her and would not agree to any plea deal, adding, we were fully aligned with the prosecutor and rejecting the proposed plea deals. And that part, I completely understand. Number one, it doesn't seem as though they needed a plea deal. They had a mountain of evidence against him. And I think, as the family, regardless of how old this kid is, you want the maximum sentence under the law.

I think most families would want that. Now, that is different when it comes to the death penalty. Some people are okay with that. Some people are totally against it. But excluding that, I think most families of murder victims want people to be sentenced to the maximum. Yeah, and I wonder part of it was because he didn't seem sorry at all for what he had done. He was cocky and arrogant and really didn't seem to have remorse. So I wonder if the family said, you know, you're not even the least bit troubled by what you did.

So we don't want any part of a plea deal. We don't want you to have any leniency. Yeah, I mean, you could look at it as just another bad decision on his part. We've talked about a series of them. Obviously, the most glaring being the fact that he chose to murder somebody, that's the obvious one. But being unremorseful, being cocky. that could have driven some of the thoughts by the family. What you did was so horrible,

but now you're acting as though, you know, you don't even care about it. You're not sorry. We're coming after you. It seemed like Aden Fucci knew that no jury would find him not guilty and that a trial would just prolong things. Another statement from Tristan's family read, with the detailed and exemplary investigative work of the St.

John's County Sheriff's Office, along with the trial preparation by the 7th Judicial Circuit State Attorney's Office, were confident that the jury would have returned a guilty verdict. On March 24, 2003, Judge R. Lee Smith sentenced 16-year-old Aden Fucci to life in prison. There was no motive for this crime that Judge Smith could see, concluding that Aden Fucci simply did it to feel what it was like to kill someone. Due to his age, his sentence will be eligible for review in the future. Before Aden Fucci's sentencing, he wrote an apology that was entered into the record, but overall it wasn't a letter of remorse to Tristan's family.

The apology letter read, Mom, now I miss your lemon pepper chicken. I miss your hugs. I miss you. The longer I'm in here, the more I forget, the more memories I lose. I'll never forget you love me. I miss the fun we had, four-wheeling, paintballing, going on long car trips. Towards the end, Aiden did apologize to Tristan's loved ones, writing

that he was sorry to the friends, brothers, sisters, mom, dad, and any other family relatives because they didn't get to know her that long. So to me, more if I look at that, is kind of half-hearted. I'll call it that. Yes, technically, did he apologize? He did. But it didn't seem all that sincere. It was very, very short. You know, in the letter, he spent most of the, of the time talking about the things that he would miss. And I often think that's true of most murderers. I don't think that the majority of them are all that sorry for the murders that they committed. I think they're sorry that they got caught and they're missing out on what they used to be

able to do on the outside. That's my feeling. And I think it's clearly evident overall in his last. that he's more worried about what he's going to miss and what he's not going to have and not thinking about what Tristan misses out on not having her life and her future. During Aden Fucci's sentencing hearing, victims were able to give their statements to the judge asking him to consider how Fucci's actions and Tristan's loss had affected them before deciding on a sentence. Her older sister Alexis gave a very powerful statement.

statement. She placed an empty jar on the witness stand and filled it with pebbles. 114 pebbles. The court watched in silence as she dropped a stone in the jar for every wound her sister endured. Tristan's mom, Stacey, told Yahoo News, this sort of closure. Getting justice does not mean that everything is automatically okay. When the sentence came and he received a life sentence. It's like for a few days you were back at ground zero. Of course, Aden Fucci being sentenced to prison was what Tristan's family wanted, but what was going to keep them going every day now? Stacey said, we all thought, who are we now? What do we do? And more from telling you what? As I read that out, what Alexis did on the stand, I got goosebumps. I mean, it affected me. I didn't.

see it. I'm just imagining her dropping these 114 pebbles into a jar, signifying every wound that her sister endured. And a shiver ran down the back of my spine and I got goosebumps. Yeah, it really paints a picture. And, you know, if you're in that courtroom, I'm sure that people were, you know, probably mood, probably crying because that just really demonstrate. straight, even without words, what it represented. And that was those stab wounds that her sister suffered. And it really thought that Tristan's mom's Stacey's words were important as well. You know, her saying that getting justice doesn't automatically make everything okay. I understand that. It's an important part of the process, but it doesn't just magically solve everything for the family.

Just like she said, who are we now? What do we do? How do we go forward? How do we move forward? Just so tough to think of what that family was going through and what they're still going through. What they'll always go through. Well, Tristan's family has decided to look toward the future and try to prevent another tragedy like this from happening. Stacey told Yahoo News, we look at the fight that Tristan had for her life.

Tristan fought back against Aiden Fucci quite hard. if she hadn't, there would have been a fatal wound much more quickly. If she had known some sort of martial arts technique, could she have overpowered him, stunned him just long enough to get away from him? Stacey added, we want to make sure that people are better prepared for that. So there are a number of groups that we're looking to work with to do self-defense classes. And we see this in so many cases, right? A family loses, a loved one, and then they try to find some way to honor them

by doing something good. It sounds like that's what Tristan's family is going to do as well. I want to touch on this subject of self-defense because I do personally think that it is very important for people to know some type of self-defense techniques. My youngest daughter is a black belt in taekwondo. I'm very proud of that. It gives me a level of comfort, not to say that she could beat up. anyone, but could she defend herself to the best of her ability? And I think the answer is yes.

And I like knowing that. Now, she put in a ton of work and it took her many, many years. But I think she's a better person for knowing that. Yeah, and I think as a parent, that definitely would give you peace of mind knowing that she has skills to, you know, as you mentioned, not beat someone up, but at least defend herself and maybe get out of it. the situation by herself time to escape. So I think what Tristan's family doing is pretty admirable because they're trying to help people in the future avoid the same fate as their daughter. Remembering how easily Tristan was able to brighten a day and how cheerful she was,

the family is looking to keep that energy alive. Tristan's father, Forrestes Bailey, said, we're looking to align a lot of help with opportunities to help people in need, help that person who is being bullied or that person who needs that friendly face in the hallway. Forrest Bailey explained the guilt he feels and how it's hard not to take some of the blame for what Aden Fucci did to his daughter, saying, I'm continually having a hard time thinking about, you know, had I stayed up that night like I typically did and chased everybody to bed rather than retiring because I was tired. And man, more of, you know, these type of things, they hurt. They, they hurt me. As a father, the guilt that he

feels is probably never going to go away. Now, you could say he shouldn't feel guilty at all. And he shouldn't. He didn't do anything wrong. But it doesn't matter. You know, the guilt is going to creep in. Just because he decided to go to bed, he feels guilty. And that's, my heart breaks. Yeah, and in the same Yahoo News article, Forrest Bailey mentioned that he wondered about his daughter, Tristan's friendly disposition, one they had been proud of her whole life. He said, I think about the way that we always encouraged our kids to find the good in people, and maybe we should have pushed more to steer clear of people. Forrest Bale added, one of the things that is this heart-wrenching to us is Tristan really had very little interaction with Aidan. He said that there were several people Aiden tried to reach out to before he ultimately asked for Tristan's contact information. So a big question here in this case is what could have been done, if anything, to prevent this murder from happening?

Were the warning signs clear enough that someone should have taken some kind of action? Even Aidan Fucci's girlfriend, who had known about his homicidal fantasies and who had experienced him pretending to slit her her throat. Didn't really take the whole thing seriously. Stacey Bailey told News 4 Jacksonville, I don't know how his girlfriend thought it was a joke when he was doing those things to her. And I think that kids today need to realize there's a fine line between joking and seriousness. And there are things that you don't joke about. And that's one of them. And I really wish that they had taken it seriously. And for me, that's a, that is a tough one. I see both sides of it. I definitely see. Stacey's side, I do think that kids today joke about things they shouldn't joke about.

A lot of kids don't take things very seriously. Even things that we perceive to be, you know, big. They joke about those things. But it's hard to come down on a young girl too hard because I do think a lot of kids struggle with, you know, their friends joking around. what is the point in time where they need to reach out to somebody? Because there are big ramifications for doing that. Yeah, it seems like a fine line as to where you decide,

okay, this person's not being serious to where, you know, I need to tell someone because I think this could be a dangerous situation. So, you know, I think a lot of kids these days face that, especially in this era where, you know, schools go on lockdown because of shootings, things like that, they have to be on alert. They have to know when to let

an adult know that something's going on. And obviously that, as you mentioned, is going to have repercussions one way or another. Yeah, I mean, you're going to lose a boyfriend, a friend, a group of friends. If you take a certain action. And I think that makes

it really tough on kids to know when is the right time to tell an adult about something they think is potentially harmful. I don't think it's as black and white as many people think it is. And as we've mentioned, while Tristan's family may feel some guilt, although they weren't responsible, they're trying to move forward and let go of those feelings and honor Tristan's memory. Bailey's dad forced till the St. Augustine record, now it's time to persevere in spite of the loss. Our love is greater than the evil that can exist in the

world. We have so much love and pride in what Tristan did while she was here, and we were very committed to taking that forward and truly honoring her spirit. Like many parents and families of loved ones gone too soon, Stacey told Yahoo News, we never really knew until after how much of an impact she made on those around her. Forrest Bailey added, it's surprising that in 13 years across so many different circles, she made so many connections. And I think those quotes are almost universal in every case that we do where a young person is taken too soon by violence, it's not until after that the family finds out just how many people, their son, their daughter touched while they were alive. The Tristan Bailey Memorial was created to honor her memory

and is currently available at www. www.j.j.cf.org slash give slash memorial page Tristan Bailey. That's triple dash Tristan dash Bailey. According to her memorial page, the Tristan Bailey Memorial Fund was established to honor the vibrant life of Tristan Bailey at just 13 years old.

Tristan was an inspiration to those around her. she was a loving daughter, sister, and friend, a dedicated student and an avid cheerleader, constantly supporting and encouraging those around her. Tristan was dedicated to achieving her goals, whether it be in academics or mastering her backtuck for cheerleading. She was also dedicated to helping others achieve their goals by providing encouraging words or sharing her time to help them out or giving a big hug when needed. This fund will be used to continue to spread Tristan's light, love, and passion for helping others.

Fly high, Tristan, you will live forever in our hearts and minds. Tristan's favorite color was teal, and her family and friends made sure to wear teal-colored clothing as they testified and gave their victim impact statements at Aden Fucci's sentencing hearing. Crystal Smith is awaiting trial on charges of evidence tampering. As of our recording, it's set to begin with jury selection on it. April 12th. Forrest Bailey told Yahoo News, it's hard to take that she would write an apology letter and yet take no responsibility for what she's done and continue to put our family through this, put the community through this. Aden Fucci will be eligible for a sentence review after serving 25 years. To date, it seems he has not shown remorse for what he did to Tristan and for the pain

he caused her family. Perhaps by the time he's eligible for that sentence review, He will have had time to mature and grow as a person and accept responsibility for the pain and suffering he's caused. Losing Tristan has really caused her family to reflect, realizing that someone you care about can be gone without warning. Her father, Forrest, told News 4 Jacksonville, if there's one thing I'd like to see people do with this, it's spending time with their loved ones and recognizing that when you were just breaking bread together, that's very important.

And to those who love Tristan, he says, when things get difficult and challenging, I want you to hear one more voice in your head and hear her cheering you on. Okay, I got chills again. I don't know, man. I've gotten a lot of chills in this episode because I really do think this was an amazing young girl. And, you know, I'm struggling with her loss and the loss that her. family feels, the guilt they feel. I'm just really struggling with it, to be honest with you. And I'm struggling with why this kid did what he did. Now, go back to what the judge said. There seems to be no motive. It seems as if Aden Fucci just wanted to see what it felt like

to kill someone. That is an extremely scary thought. Yeah, I think sometimes. the lack of a motive, not that there would be any good motive in the first place, but the lack of answers leaves you wondering, how does this happen? How could this young boy stab her 114 times and just really be left to ponder how that happens and what drove him and then to see his lack of remorse afterwards. It just, you know, it's just something that's hard to, hard to accept. Well, we talk about a lot of adult killers and we're left wondering, you know, why do they do what they do? We try to get into their heads. To me, it's even tougher when you're talking about a 14 year old. You know, I think of a 14 year old as playing video games, playing

sports, having fun, hanging out with their friends, just getting kind of ready or started to discover what life has to offer. I don't think of them sitting around having homicidal thoughts and wondering what it would feel like to kill someone. I can't square that. Yeah, and I think, unfortunately, this is just one of those cases where you just don't get answers. Nothing really makes sense. and it may never make sense. But no doubt, you know, our hearts go out to Tristan's family. It seems as though they're trying to do the best they can. They're trying to make some good things happen in the wake of her murder and keep her

spirit a lot, which I think is very admirable. And hopefully some kind of good does come from it and other people in the long run maybe are protected because of things they're doing now. to honor Tristan's memory. So there's a couple of things as we wrap up this case that, you know, I'll be keeping an eye on. One in the short term is, you know, what happens with Crystal Smith and this trial on charges of evidence tampering.

And then obviously down the road at some point, what happens with Aden Fucci? Does he grow up? Does he start to develop remorse and a conscience? Because it seems as though right now he has neither. And what happens ultimately when it comes time for him to be reviewed for, you know, possible parole? That's a long way in the future. You and I will long be retired and hopefully sitting in an Adirondack chair on the

lake, but it doesn't mean I won't be following it. But that's it for our episode on Tristan Bailey. Again, I think I got the shivers, goosebumps, two or three times during that episode. And I knew what was coming. You know, so to me, that that makes it even more powerful. I knew the story. And I still got those reactions. But if you love the show and you haven't done so yet, take a minute, go out. give us a five-star rating. You can leave a review. All of that helps. Also, keep telling your friends about the podcast. That word of mouth really goes a long way. If you want to find us on social media, we're on Twitter with the handle at Criminology Pod. You can also find us on Facebook by going to Facebook.com slash criminology podcast or join our Facebook discussion group,

criminology podcast, discussion, and fans. So that's it for another episode of criminology, but Morph and I will be back with all of you next Saturday night with a brand new episode. So until then for Mike and Morph. We'll talk to you next week. Take care, everyone.