Law&Crime Sidebar - 'Pure Evil’: Aiden Fucci Admits to Stabbing Cheerleader to Death as Shocking Evidence Surfaces

Episode Date: February 6, 2023

Teen killer Aiden Fucci changed his mind ahead of his murder trial Monday and pleaded guilty to the fatal stabbing of 13-year-old Tristyn Bailey in May 2021. Authorities released shocking evidence ahead of the teen’s trial that was used to convict Fucci. After his confession, Fucci now faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 40 years in prison.LAW&CRIME SIDEBAR PRODUCTION:YouTube Management - Bobby SzokePodcasting - Sam GoldbergVideo Editing - Michael DeiningerGuest Booking - Alyssa FisherSocial Media Management - Kiera BronsonSUBSCRIBE TO OUR OTHER PODCASTS:Court JunkieObjectionsThey Walk Among AmericaCoptales and CocktailsThe Disturbing TruthSpeaking FreelyLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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will keep you on the edge of your seat. Don't let your fears take hold of you as you dive into this addictive series. Love thrillers with a paranormal twist? The entire Oracle trilogy is available on Audible. Listen now on Audible. Your Honor, on behalf of Aden Fucci, we enter a change of plea at this time. Entering a guilty plea is charged. On the morning that jury selection was to begin in Aiden Fucci's murder trial, he changes his plea and admits that he murdered Tristan Bailey. I'm Ann Jeanette Levy, and welcome back to Sidebar here on Law and Crime. On the morning that jury selection was to begin in Aden Fucci's murder trial, he pleads guilty to murdering Tristan Bailey back in 2021. He now faces the possibility of 40 years in prison

to life in prison when he is sentenced. His defense attorney said that all of their plea offers to the prosecution had been rejected. So after Fucci's attorney said that he was changing his plea, the judge in the case conducted a colloquy with Aiden Fucci to make sure he understood what was happening. All right. Sir, if you state your name. Ed and Sean Fucci. Mr. Fucci, how are you, sir? 16. How far did you go in school? To eighth grade. Are you able to read and understand the English language? Yes, Your Honor. Are you one of the influence of any medication, drugs, or alcohol right now? Yes, sir, my medication, but...

What type of medication are you taking? RIMRONs, lithium, and supraxia. Is that medication prescribed by a physician? Yes, sir. And does that medication assist you in your ability to understand what's happening and going on around you? Yes, sir. Have you taken that medication today as prescribed by your physician? Last night, sir.

last night. Is that when you were scheduled to take it? Yes, sir. All right. And is it in any way, shape, or form affecting your ability to understand what's going on here this morning? No, Your Honor. Do you feel clear-headed and clear-minded about what's going on here today? Yes, Your Honor. Joining me to discuss Aiden Fucci's guilty plea and the evidence in this case, which was overwhelming, is retired homicide detective Phil Waters. He was with the Houston Police Department for 33 years investigating high-profile cases and also runs Kindred Spirits Investigations. Phil, welcome back to Sidebar. Thanks for coming on. Thank you, Angenet. Always a pleasure to be with you. Yeah, you too. Your reaction just first and foremost to that guilty plea right there when jury

selection was supposed to begin. I'm not surprised. The evidence that I've looked at, the 12 sheets of evidence that they accumulated in this case recovered was amazing. It was irrefutable. There was no way to argue that there was not enough evidence, certainly. And they even recovered the weapon. So I am not surprised I've had this kind of thing happen before in one of my capital cases where the trial was about to begin. People were about to get up and give testimony.

And the person decided to defendants stood up and said, I want to plead. And that's what they did. And they went right into punishment. So in this particular case, in Florida, my sense is, is there they'll now go to sentencing, but it'll probably come from the judge. I know there's a mandatory 40 years, but I can't imagine the judge giving just the mandatory minimum on this case. And it could be extended to life.

I mean, this is a horrific crime. Tristan Bailey, a 13-year-old girl, cheerleader stabbed 114 times. That is overkill, Phil. What does that tell you about Aiden Fucci? just the fact that you would be able to stab someone a hundred and fourteen times. Stabbing them once or twice takes a lot of force. I can't even imagine. Well, a guy like this who was predisposed to this, I mean, he had talked about wanting to do something like this, killing somebody seeing how it felt. So this would be, for me, this would be the distinction that

I would make between a sociopath and a psychopath. A sociopath, at least in my world, my simple definition is, is a person that commits a crime of murder and feels justified in what they did. Now, the distinction between a psychopath is that they commit a sociopathic act, but they enjoy what they're doing. So there is, when you talk about the 114 times that he stabs this, this girl, this young lady, clearly, for me, he defines himself as a psychopath. He was enjoying what he was doing. There were knives in this case that are part of the evidence. He actually named his knives, picker and poker. And there are photographs that the state had obtained of these two knives. So just the fact that he named his knives, it seems like this was very planned. This was

premeditated. What does that tell you about naming your murder weapons? Well, again, that goes to what I just said about the psychopathy of this guy. He's, he is, there is, and I, and I, and I, and I, use this term, and I don't use it loosely because I've had some cases where this term was not applied to it, but in this case, this is an act of pure evil. This individual decided that he was wanting to fulfill some need that he had to go out and kill someone. Then when he got to the point where he was decided he was going to do it, he picked the victim. And I would have to believe. I mean, people kill people for one of three motives that sex drugs or money. I think in this particular case, I noticed in the litany of the listing of all the evidence, they took a sexual

assault kit test. And there are some other components there that would suggest that this had a sexual component to it. I don't know that he actually committed the act, but I think that there was a sexual component to this, to this murder and may have fulfilled some sort of excitement in that area for him. And that's not uncommon for just because there may not be a sexual assault. It doesn't mean that the perpetrator doesn't get some sort of sexual gratification out of the act. Let's look at a little bit more of the evidence that was seized in this case, or at least collected, I should say, because evidence can come in the form. of statements as well, one of the officers who took Aden Fucci into custody said that allegedly

he and Tristan Bailey argued. He pushed her hard to the ground where she hit her head. While sitting in my patrol vehicle, Aden started to cry and punched the back of the seat, the officer wrote. I asked him if he was okay and he stated, I'm going to get arrested for this bull. You know what. I did not ask him any questions. I stated if he did not do anything, he has nothing to worry about. what do those statements tell you? Well, from the beginning, those are Reyes Justi statements. Those are statements that he makes and he's not asked a question. He's not responding to something. He just makes the statement. And those are critical. I've had those in my cases and they are the first impression of that person that law enforcement has when they

come in contact with him. So that is critical. Those Reyes Justi statements he's making in the back of the patrol car are significant. And then when you start putting the evidence together, my gosh, they had a treasure trove of evidence of evidence. I mean, they had physical evidence, forensic evidence, they've got trace evidence, they've got digital evidence, they've got videos, they've got Reyes Justite statements. And then when you tie in the mother washing the clothes, they've got video of her doing that, I mean, you talk about affirmative links. I don't know that I have seen a case, at least in recent history, that have this many affirmative links that kind of closed the loop and you've got the full picture of what happened here in this particular murder. And we have injuries to Aden Fucci's body. There are scratches, cuts, obviously defensive wounds where Tristan Bailey tried to defend herself and sadly was murdered and she couldn't fight back against him.

So those photographs are also important, too. Sure they are. And it looks like he may have cut to his hand. And that may have been in the midst of the stabbing. I'm telling you, almost every stabbing case that I have worked where there was this volume of stab wounds. The suspect has inadvertently cut themselves because they're not really, once they start getting into it, especially when you've got a guy that's 114 stab wounds, he's not really looking at where he's. he's going with this. So they get the hand out in front of them and there you go. And some of these

other injuries that look like may have been from brambles or briars. I mean, he took her off into the woods. And so some of those things look like they may have been caused by by some of the landscape. Well, Phil Waters, thank you so much as always for coming on to talk with us about this. We appreciate your time and your expertise as always. And we will be looking forward to that sentencing to see exactly which sentence Aidan Fucci gets. Thank you, Anjanet. And that's it for this edition of Law and Crime's Sidebar Podcast. It is produced by Sam Goldberg and Michael Dininger.

Bobby Zoki is our director of YouTube. Alyssa Fisher handles our bookings and Kiera Bronson does our social media. You can listen to and download Sidebar on Apple, Spotify, Google, and wherever else you get your podcast. And of course, you can always watch it on Law and Crimes YouTube channel. I'm Ann Chinette Levy, and we will see you next time. You can binge all episodes of this long crime series ad free right now on Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.