Law&Crime Sidebar - 'Gut-Wrenching': Mom Finds Teen Cheerleader Murdered in Bathtub at Texas Home

Episode Date: December 8, 2023

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Starting point is 00:00:00 Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this Law and Crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondry Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. A teenage girl doesn't show up for a parade in her small town. When her mom goes home to check on her, she finds a horrific crime scene instead. We're speaking with Matt Hinson, the attorney for a family that experienced a very similar situation to talk about the Medina case, as well as the positive impact they're trying to make. make in the wake of such a massive tragedy. Welcome to Sidebar, presented by Law and Crime. I'm Jesse Weber. Now, this story of a young cheerleader found dead under suspicious
Starting point is 00:00:43 circumstances, it might sound unfortunately familiar to you because the investigation into the death of 16-year-old Elizabeth Medina in Edna, Texas has some, again, stark similarities to the Tristan Bailey case. You might remember this one. Tristan was a 13-year-old high school cheerleader from St. John's County, Florida, who was murdered by her then 14-year-old classmate Aiden Fucci in 2021. Fucci ended up changing his plea to guilty earlier this year. He was charged as an adult, and he was sentenced to life in prison. There appears to be no real motive other than Fucci just wanted to kill someone.
Starting point is 00:01:21 All right, so with that in mind, I want to bring on a special guest. I want to bring on Matt Hinson, who is the attorney for the Bailey family and president of the Tristan Bailey Foundation, Matt Hinson, thanks so much for coming here on Sidebar. We really do appreciate it. Thank you for having us. I just want your overall reaction to start because you have another case of another young cheerleader
Starting point is 00:01:43 seemingly killed in the prime of her life. What was your immediate reaction to seeing this news? That's just gut-wrenching. It's gut-wrenching for the family, for her mother, and not just for the immediately family, It's the community around her that is going to be heavily impacted. And we saw that here in St. John's, Florida, where you've got a lot of other 16 and 15 and 17-year-olds that are in classes with her that are immediately losing their innocence. And it's a heavy community impact.
Starting point is 00:02:17 So we feel so devastated for that community there, much less her mother, which words can't express. you know, the condolence is there. Yeah. Sometimes we don't think about it, the impact not only on the immediate family, but the community at large. This shocks, you know, the conscience. And we still don't know so much about this. We actually tried to get Forrest Bailey on Tristan's father. Unfortunately, there was some scheduling issues. But the Bailey family, when they heard the news of this case, what's their reaction to it? Obviously devastated for the same reasons I just mentioned. But I think they're also, the
Starting point is 00:02:55 immediate response I think that I got was poor mom and they know what that mother's going through and they've they've dealt with that obviously as a family and and in this particular case I think their their biggest thought and concern was about her family and what they're going through what they're going to go through very early on in the process but family in the community is at the top of their mind and correct me if I'm wrong but as I recall you know it wasn't a situation where and Tristan died, and clearly when Elizabeth died, you know, the answers are right there. You know, they got an arrest in an hour. I mean, it's that uncertainty, too, of what exactly happened and why it happened that I think
Starting point is 00:03:35 is probably one of the most difficult parts, right? Right. And there's two kind of competing powers here. One is the power of the public to know what's going on. They want to know what happened. They want to feel safe and they want to feel as though there's some sense of justice and some sense of closure. there's the other competing interest, which is the law enforcement interest, and that's one of the things that, you know, the Tristan Bailey Foundation, one of our four pillars is victim advocacy.
Starting point is 00:04:03 And part of victim advocacy is understanding that we have to work with law enforcement and prosecutors to ensure the integrity of their investigations. So a lot of times in situations like this, for instance, not a lot of information out there in the public. but that's largely likely because of a law enforcement need to keep that investigative process kind of closed off so that if there is a confession, if there is or if there are multiple suspects, whatever the situation is, they're going to have the ability to have that information to use for whether it's interview purposes or interrogation purposes so that it's not out in the public. All right, we want to thank Morgan and Morgan for sponsoring this video. I think it's pretty clear from the stories that we cover that it is not always safe out there.
Starting point is 00:04:49 When you're hurt, it can be pretty confusing. It can be scary and you really don't know where to turn. Well, Morgan and Morgan is actually the largest injury law firm in America. And at a time when you already have so much to think about, they make it super easy for you. They have completely modernized the process because you can submit your claim, you sign contracts, you upload documents, you talk to your whole legal team all on your phone. That's it. Yeah, an attorney is going to review your case in just eight clicks. They also have 4,000 support staff that can help you too, which is amazing to think about.
Starting point is 00:05:21 And in terms of price, well, you only pay them if you win. There's no upfront fee. So if you're injured and you want to join the over 3 million people that call them every year, you can submit a claim at www. for the people.com slash LC sidebar or by dialing pound law that's pound 529 on your phone. were you surprised that they came out a law enforcement and made a statement that this was a capital murder case and again just to reiterate reiterate in texas you know capital murders kind of like it's murder with an extra factor it's either it was committed during the commission of another
Starting point is 00:05:57 felony like you know a burglary or robbery there are other kind of circumstances that don't apply here like if it was the killing of a police officer um but you know the fact that they come forward with it they say this is a capital murder case before any of us really know you know what happened to lisbeth does that seem is that surprising to you i wouldn't say it's surprising it probably gives us some clues as the public that they knew immediately that it was not um anything like a suicide they knew that it was not going to be an accidental death it probably says that what that poor mother saw um was was likely heinous and not something that any of us would ever want to see from another human being much less than
Starting point is 00:06:39 their child. And it gives us a little bit of clue about what's moving for. And you take that into perspective with what the mother has already said publicly about what she saw and how horrible it was. It's my anticipation and my guess that will learn more in the future that it was, it was probably brutal. And it kind of gives you a little bit of the why. Maybe not, maybe not the total why, but it kind of gives you a little bit more context about they know more of the circumstances of this killing than they're sharing with us, but they have enough at this point to maybe go in a certain direction. That's the way I see it. It kind of gives me a good feeling about it. I wanted to ask you about Elizabeth's mother and, you know,
Starting point is 00:07:24 Jacqueline, regarding this. Should she seek a lawyer at this point in time? There's a lot I don't know. So that's hard to say. It's, It's my role with representing the Bailey family was to assist them with the media. While I'm a lawyer and I have obviously legal insight to things, I would say she probably wants someone to help deal with the media because it is going to likely get overwhelming, whether it's local media or national media such as your broadcast, that it will not be hurtful to have someone to help her deal with that influx of questions
Starting point is 00:08:02 and when to answer when not and how to best. cooperate with law enforcement, because there's probably things that she would like to say, but if she says them, it could potentially harm the case and the investigative process of it. And that's something that we all have to deal with any time in these scenarios is the desire to give information, but the need to withhold it to protect the integrity of any investigation or prosecutorial process. And correct me if I'm wrong, did you also act as maybe a liaison between the family, and law enforcement. Is that a role that a lawyer could help serve for her in this case? Is that
Starting point is 00:08:40 a role that you played during the Tristan Bailey case? It is. It is. And I acted as liaison between law enforcement, between the prosecutor's office in St. John's County, which I can't say enough about how amazing they were in that process and communicating with the family and communicating with me. But that's useful, having that liaison so that one of the most important things about these situations for the victims. And when I say the victims, I don't just mean the poor young lady that was murdered, but the mother is also a victim in this scenario. And as well as the community, they need to take the time to be able to focus on themselves and grieve.
Starting point is 00:09:21 And while we as a public have a need for information and that desire for it, we need to respect the privacy of these families when they go through this horrible situation. And there's little things. And this is part of what our foundation is about, and the victim advocacy part, it is little things that can trigger emotional responses that the media may not be aware of. For instance, in the Tristan Bailey case, anytime that her photo was shown side by side with the defendant, that hurt them. They didn't like to see her photos side by side with them. So those are things that maybe the media doesn't think about, the emotional triggers that can
Starting point is 00:09:57 happen. And that helped, I think I was able to help play a role in communication, and communicating with both the media and the prosecutors to deal with those scenarios. The Tristan Bailey Foundation, is this the kind of case that you would look into and try to help Elizabeth's family navigate through? Absolutely. And one of the key, we've had fundraisers and we've been very public here locally and some on national scale is victim advocacy. And if there's a victim out there that we can provide any type of guidance or direction from the foundation will be more than glad to a assist where we can. What would you advise Jacqueline at this point? What would you advise? I mean, what did you say to the family, Tristan Bailey, when this first happened? What should she be thinking about, right? It's just so fresh. It's just after she discovered the body of her daughter.
Starting point is 00:10:47 What would you advise her at this point on, you know, I don't even know what to say or think moving forward as this case progresses? Right. I don't have enough information to advise her legally, but as a human being, as a person, as a human being, as somebody who's been through a case like this, I would advise her to put herself number one, put herself and her family number one and their long-term and short-term goals, because there are going to be short-term goals of just trying to get through day-to-day, and there's going to be short-term goals of making sure that a suspect is caught and prosecuted. And then there's a long-term goals of the prosecution, but also the healing.
Starting point is 00:11:31 And as a human being, I would say you don't have to say yes to any interview. You don't have to say no. But work with the prosecutors and make sure that you're getting help for yourself, professional help. I think professional help is very important for survivors in situations like this.
Starting point is 00:11:49 By the way, how is the Bailey family doing right now? I would say they're doing as well as it can be expected. The case is, the criminal side of that is over. The defendant, Mr. Fucci, is in jail for life with a 25-year review. The mother had her case for tampering with evidence, and that is over. And so the focus then shifted into the foundation and how we can keep Tristan's bright light shining, and that's really kept them focused on the positive sides of what can happen from these scenarios as opposed to dwelling on the negative.
Starting point is 00:12:26 And they've been as strong a family than anybody have ever met. You mentioned it a little bit, but if there should be, and at the time of this recording there's not, but if someone is arrested or multiple people are arrested, what should Jacqueline Medina be thinking about in terms of or expect to feel or go through once there's an arrest and then it becomes, it moves into the legal arena? Because I feel like that changes too.
Starting point is 00:12:52 That's a different component. Yeah. Every state's criminal procedure is different. And so the timing of how that process works out is going to be different state-by-state jurisdiction by jurisdiction. But the one thing that will certainly, I would say that she needs to expect us to be patient. The criminal process is not one that is victim-centered generally. The criminal process is centered around the defendant's rights and the defendant's trial if it goes to a trial. And for her to be patient and understanding, work with the prosecutor,
Starting point is 00:13:23 I'm sure there's a great bunch of prosecutors there. Texas has a great history and reputation for making sure that they investigate their crimes and prosecute them. But just trust in the process, be patient, and again, focus on herself, focus on her grieving, at the same time being willing to say no if she wants to say no. Yeah, I think that's important. And I think it's important for her to hear that.
Starting point is 00:13:50 And I think it's important for people to recognize that as well. it's just a really sad case and again we immediately thought of you guys when we saw this story does it shock you still that we're seeing a death of such a young person
Starting point is 00:14:05 again taken in the prime of their life and this is a capital murder case now so brutally killed I mean it's just it's always shocking to me but you having been involved in a case like this or a life is taken at such a young age
Starting point is 00:14:19 does it ever does it still shock you that we're seeing this kind of thing It does, honestly, and I think the day that we're not shocked anymore, we have a major problem as a society if we're not shocked by these things, because if we start to become complacent and not shocked, we're not going to take the steps necessary to try to correct whatever problems that are causing these situations to happen. So I'm absolutely shocked.
Starting point is 00:14:47 My heart hurts so much, Jacqueline, in that community, and the children in that community, those who she went to school with. Absolutely shot. Matt Hinson, thank you so much for coming on. Again, anybody could check out the Tristan Bailey Foundation. We had the privilege on Prime Crime,
Starting point is 00:15:05 the show that I executive, produce and host, to speak with the Bailey family, do a whole episode on Tristan Bailey. You were instrumental in helping coordinate that. Thank you so much. I hope everybody can check that out. But again, please send our best to the Bailey family and hopefully Jacqueline Medina
Starting point is 00:15:22 and may be able to turn to you guys as a resource as this goes forward. But Matt Hinson, thank you so much. Absolutely, thank you. And we're here to help people. That's what the foundation is about. So we look forward to anything we can do. All right, everybody, that is all we have for you right now here on Sidebar. Thank you so much for joining us.
Starting point is 00:15:39 And please subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Jesse Weber. I'll speak to you next time. You can binge all episodes of this law and crime series ad free right now on Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.

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