Law&Crime Sidebar - Teen Accused of Stabbing Cheerleader 114 Times Faces Murder Trial Next Week — Aiden Fucci Case

Episode Date: February 4, 2023

The Florida teen accused of stabbing a 13-year-old girl 114 times when he was 14-years-old is set to face trial Monday. Fifteen-year-old Aiden Fucci will be tried as an adult for the alleged murder of cheerleader Tristyn Bailey in May 2021. The Law&Crime Network’s Jesse Weber breaks down the case with Florida-based criminal defense attorney Kathleen Bogenschutz.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.

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. Agent Nate Russo returns in Oracle 3, Murder at the Grandview, the latest installment of the gripping Audible Original series. When a reunion at an abandoned island hotel turns deadly, Russo must untangle accident from murder. But beware, something sinister lurks in the grand. View Shadows. Joshua Jackson delivers a bone-chilling performance in this supernatural thriller that

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. Are you, uh, Aden Fucci? Yes, sir. A 16-year-old is set to stand trial for the murder of a 13-year-old girl, and he's being tried as an adult. Welcome to Sidebar, by law and crime. I'm Jesse Weber. So a new trial is set to begin on Monday, February 6th in St. John's County, Florida, which is just south of Jacksonville. And it concerns 16-year-old Aiden Fucci, who is charged with first-degree murder for killing 13-year-old Tristan Bailey back on May 9th, 2021.

Fucci was just 14 years old at the time of the crime, and he spent time in a juvenile detention center before he was eventually moved to an adult prison. Got to give you the back story here. So Tristan Bailey, Aiden Fucci, they went to school together at Patriot Oaks Academy, both lived in an upper middle class neighborhood, pretty much had zero crime. But then we go to Mother's Day. May 9th, 2021, Bailey goes missing. Her mother reports are missing.

The police immediately respond. They put out an alert. The community stepped into search. People put up flyers. They had huge search parties to look for her trying to find her in any way possible. because we know that the first hours, the first few days are the most critical. And as police investigated, they found footage on a neighbor's security camera. And that footage is so crucial.

In that footage, it purportedly shows Bailey and Fucci walking together on the sidewalk on May 9th at 1.15 a.m. They're just walking toward a wooded area of the neighborhood. Nothing really out of the ordinary as you watch it. but then it was revealed that the two were friends and that they had been hanging out several times a week. But here is where things take an extremely eerie turn. Nothing is caught on that same camera until a little over two hours later when the video seemingly shows just Fucci, not Bailey, Fucci walking back home alone. Now, as you can imagine, after watching the

footage, police immediately took Fucci in for questioning. And while he's in the back of the police car, This is where things take another strange turn. Fucci takes out his phone and he proceeds to take a Snapchat of himself with the caption, quote, hey guys, has anybody seen Tristan lately? And if that wasn't enough, he proceeds to take a video as well. We're having fun in a fucking cop car. Yep. Tristan.

What's up, guys? Tristan, if you fucking walk out the damn. It's in a fucking cop car, guys. She's tripping, dude. Now, of course, just like any other gossip in any other high school, that would operate. You can imagine what happened next. The Snapchat of Fucci gets shared with pretty much the whole school. After all of this, Fucci's younger cousin was questioned by the police.

Investigators asked her about any odd behavior from Fucci. She stated that he once told her that he might go to jail sometime in his life. Now, back in the squad car, Fucci's demeanor kind of changed. He spent time in the back seat and reports are that he became upset and said, quote, I'm going to get arrested for this BS. Now, here's something to note. Now, one of the initial stories that Fucci told investigators is that he and Tristan were walking. She grabbed his privates.

He pushed her, and she was struck in her head. And he says that he was dizzy from smoking pot earlier, and he just left her there and, quote, walked around alone for a while. Fucci also told the detective that Tristan could have been involved with a drug dealer who's in his 20s, that she talks through social media, maybe trying to signal. something could be there. But in the end, is this BS like Mr. Fucci claims? Well, now let's get into the forensics. So investigators search his bedroom. And what do they find in his bedroom? They find blood on some pieces of his clothing. And the blood was later tested and came up positive as Bailey's

blood. And then, after 16 hours of her disappearing, Bailey's body is found. She is found less than a half a mile away from Fucci's home. Horrible, horrible situation of a 13-year-old girl stabbed to death. And I'm going to get back to that in a minute. But let's go back to that surveillance footage because investigators asked Fucci why it took him so long to go home. He said he walked around and had to clear his head, like I mentioned. But if you look closely at the surveillance footage,

you can also see that he walks up to his front door seemingly holding something in his hands, something not entirely sure what that could be. Well, let's talk about the murder weapon. During the investigation, the police searched the lake, which was right near where Bailey's body was found, and they find a folding button knife. How do we know that this is the weapon in question? Well, first of all, half the blade was missing, and the other half was found lodged in Bailey's skull. But not only that, Fucci's girlfriend reported that Fucci showed her his knife all the time and that he often carried a knife around with him. So you have video, testimonial, forensic evidence. It's already. It's already strong against Fucci, but that's not all. Fucci's friends come out, and they say something absolutely critical in an affidavit. Quote, within the last several weeks, the defendant advised he was going to kill someone,

and the witness should expect it to happen within the month. The witness goes on to say, quote, if he were to kill someone, it was going to be planned. He would find a random person walking at night, drag them into the, the woods and stab them. These are the alleged words of Mr. Fucci. Ultimately, Fucci is arrested and charged with a first-degree murder of Tristan Bailey. He was then held in a juvenile detention center in St. John's County. And here's his first court appearance, just less than three weeks after the killing. So let me tell you what you are charged with. You have been indicted by the St. John's County grand jury on the charge of first-degree premeditated murder. That is a capital felony

that is normally punishable by up to death or life imprisonment. In your case, because you are not yet 18 years old, death is not a possible sentence pursuant to the Florida and United States Supreme Courts, but this charge does carry a maximum penalty of life imprisonment. Do you understand the charge against you? Yes, sir. All right, there is probable cause to detain you on this charge

pursuant to the indictment issued by the St. John's County, grand jury yesterday as well as the arrest affidavit that I have previously reviewed the indictment and KPUS that followed set your bond at none is the state still asking that he be held without bond mr. Lewis that is correct judge the state's request is no bond all right miss people so you want to be heard on that issue well that will address that issue at a later date your honor with appropriate motions and witnesses okay thank you having reviewed the uh appropriate paperwork, I will preliminarily make a determination that proof is evident presumption is great. So you will be held without bond. Mr. Fucci, do you have any questions about these

proceedings today? No, sir. Later on, he's released from juvenile detention. He's arrested as an adult. Now he's heading to trial next week, and he's being tried as an adult for first-degree murder. And if found guilty, he could face life in prison without the possibility of parole. Little side note here, the death penalty can't be considered because he was 14 when this killing took place. He was a juvenile. But the reason he's being tried as an adult is seemingly given the gravity of this crime. You see, he not only allegedly murdered her, but allegedly stabbed her 114 times, 114 times. 49 of the stab wounds were located on her hands, arms, legs.

One meeting behind that could be possibly defensive wounds, something that you have to imagine is going to be explored by a prosecution medical examiner in an upcoming trial. And if you thought that that wasn't horrific, if you thought that this case wasn't bizarre enough, we now have to talk about Aiden Fucci's mother, Crystal Smith. So Aden Fucci's mom is arrested on June 5th, 2021, just less than a month after the killings. Why? Well, she's arrested for tampering with evidence. She is accused of trying to clean Aiden's bloody clothes. How do they know that she may have done that? Well, Smith had security cameras installed in her home, and she's visibly seen going into Aden's room, grabbing the bloody jeans, and washing them. The blood on the jeans and in the sink tested positive for Bailey's

blood. Now, I should tell you, she was released on $25,000 bail shortly after being booked into jail, but tampering with evidence is a third-degree felony in Florida, and Sheriff Robert Hardwick said that Crystal Smith will, quote, be held responsible for her role in this case. Now, the evidence seems to be overwhelming against Aiden Fucci that he murdered Tristan Bailey. So what is a trial going to look like? What could be a possible defense? What will even a jury look like? Well, to go over all this and discuss the details of the case, I'm joined by a very special guest. Criminal Defense Attorney Kathleen Bogan-shoots is back with us here on sidebar. Kathleen, thanks so much for taking the time. Thanks for having me. Okay, so let's first start with this possible insanity, maybe mental

health defense. The reason I bring it up is there is one thing that might play a very important part. is Fucci's Zoom hearing from September 1st, 2021. I don't know you James too myself. I don't know what's going on. Why am I? Why am I here? I just want to talk to my mom and dad. What's going on?

What's going on? What's going on? What's going on? What's going on? What do you make of that? Because I'm torn. If I look at it, I'm thinking, is this someone malingering, maybe faking the symptoms to get in an insanity type defense or legitimate insanity? What's your take on it? So as a defense attorney, I can tell you that the more time my clients that have some kind of mental health issues spend in custody, there tends to be some decompensating regarding their mental health issues, even people that are perfectly stained. You put them in the jail for a little. bit and they can kind of get a little bit nutty the same way pretty much all of us did during COVID, honestly, being stuck in our houses. But this is, this is feigning some kind of, I don't know,

that he's seeing things, hearing things, something like that. You don't believe it. You don't believe it. I think that we would have seen it before now. He's been in custody since basically the day after the incident. And it would have happened in court previously. There's also been multiple evaluations of this defendant by multiple forensic psychologists, psychiatrists, and I, to my knowledge, nobody's ever found him to be incompetent to stand trial. They've all found him incredibly manipulative and possibly a textbook psychopath, which kind of makes him a unicorn. And I guess the question is just going back to the illness. It doesn't matter what is mental state right now. It matters what his mental state was at the time of the crime. And from the

evidence you have seen put forward by the prosecution, right? Am I on the right stage there? Because the way I'm looking at it from the prosecution, don't they have strong evidence that this was premeditated and he knew what he was doing was wrong? Absolutely. So there's two different things that we're talking about. We're talking about an insanity defense, meaning I was insane at the time that I committed the crime, or he was, sorry. And then there's the competency to stand trial. And competency is a much more fluid thing. So someone can have mental health issues, but if they're on their medication and properly taking care of and properly, advised, they can be totally competent to stand trial and off their meds, they may not be.

And that's something that can change over the course of time. Insanity is a snapshot at the time of the offense, right? So I don't know if he's trying to fame that he's incompetent to stand trial or if he's trying to say he was insane at the time of the offense. Either way, I think it's hooey. What about the idea of he takes this Snapchat video in the back of a squad car? He has these satanic drawings found in his bedroom, it also makes me wonder, well, maybe there is something to mental health here. Well, I mean, I've, so granted, I'm only speaking from what I've read and what I've seen, not personal information, and I assume so are you, but the information that I have seen

from his classmates, from people who knew him, from his little girlfriend at the time, that he was a quote unquote numb person, NUMB, that he just didn't have feelings that he kind of fantasized about killing things. And just the amount of planning that you would have to put in here because at the time he's 14, right? So he has to sneak out of his house. He has to lure Ms. Bailey to the place, and it sounds like he did, for him to bring a knife. And then it's incredible, difficult. It's terrible for me to say this, but it takes a lot out of you physically to stab somebody that many times. You would start getting tired after about 20, and he just kept going. He had enough anger to keep going. The 114 stab wounds, that's very important for the

institution in establishing first-degree murder, right? Even if he's trying to say there's some kind of self-defense or overreaction to the scene at the time, you would think that after two or three, the threat would have been neutralized, at least to some extent. And just continuing to it, I mean, it recalls the title of a book that I, I believe it's a book that was written by a forensic psychologist, murder no apparent motive, meaning it seems like the murder itself was the motive that he kind of enjoyed it. Yeah. And what's interesting about that is you can understand why he's being tried as an adult, given the graphic nature of this crime. I think a friend even says that they believe the killings was 100% premeditated that Aden had become infuriated, that he had threatened Tristan with a knife. I mean, again, I believe that the prosecution is going to be calling a lot of witnesses to the stand. I am curious, though, about the potential of what he's doing in prison, excuse me, in jail might be used against him, whether or not if he said anything to inmates about this, I know there's been some discussion there.

I also know I'm going to read you something, a report from January 2020, excuse me, a report. from January 2022. It states, quote, Fucci was able to manipulate and extort inmates by threats and intimidation. Inmate Fucci did not have a commissary receipt to explain the abundance of commissary in his cell. It goes on to say when officers entered his cell to obtain the commissary items back for the other inmates. Maybe he took him from them. He became highly agitated and made threats against the officer's lives. Inmate Fucci made threats to kill our families while beating on his cell door in a loud, vicious manner. Is the prosecution going to be able to use this? I would expect them to try to use it or at least use it as maybe not substantive evidence,

but as rebuttal against the defense. I mean, this is like classic sociopath behavior for anybody who's ever been a prosecutor, done criminal law, or even known one. I mean, it's not only are, sometimes you see these like benign psychopaths and they're CEOs of companies and they're really ruthless and they don't have feelings and that really behooves them in their chosen profession. In this case, we see him murdering someone and then going on to demonstrate that classic psychopathic behavior that basically my way or the highway, he's manipulating fellow inmates. And I will put in a little caveat here.

When we say fellow inmates, because he is under 18, it is a rule in Florida, he's not going to be kept with other juvenile or he's not going to be kept with other juveniles in the juvenile detention facility, but he will be kept in a specific portion of the jail that is for juveniles. So I'm assuming that the people he is attempting to manipulate are other juveniles charged with adult offenses. Well, one thing we didn't even talk about yet is the fact that this jury looks like it's going to be a six person jury, not a 12 person jury. We know the death penalty is not on the table. What do you make of that? Why do that? Is that something that could be beneficial for the defense or the prosecution? It's beneficial for the prosecution in the fact that it gives the defense less opportunities to hang the jury and cause a mistrial or less.

opportunity for there to be an actual mistrial because you need to have 12 jurors sat. The fact is that juveniles in Florida, even though they're charged, even if they're charged with first degree murder, a capital offense, while they can get a life sentence, it's not mandatory anymore. It is a possibility. And if you can't be sentenced to death, you don't get a 12-person jury. So I think that the fact that the judge is not continuing this case past the 5th DCA. date. I mean, this judge knows that there is not going to be any kind of a, this is not getting

reversed for that. So let me ask you something else that happened in court. It's about preemptory challenges. Let's take a look. I have a couple of questions for people. I received a copy of your petition for red and a surferiori to the 5th District Court of Appeal. One of the issues that you brought up is one that I'm just not recalling ever ruling on or ever having even discussed. That was a number of peremptory challenges that each side would receive. I don't recall ever making a ruling that we were only going to utilize six for entry challenges per side.

In your petition, you allege that I made such ruling. So can you tell me, was that done or was that? Your Honor, wouldn't you reduce it from a, as tarred, or reduce the number of jurors? from 12 to 6, the number of currentaries are reduced also. That's not correct. You're still entitled to 10. Statute 913.08.

Yes, Your Honor, but I don't have the statutes are there written before that. That's where you'll pass this to his paper. If your client is facing a life sentence, then he is still entitled to 10 prerunctory challenges. So the court was always in clients utilized 10 rectory challenges per se. side. That never changed. I'll make sure that that issue was cleared up.

Okay, so the way I understand it, first explain what preemptory challenges are. And then we have the defense who's trying to argue that there should be only six instead of 10 preemptory challenges because of a six-person jury. What are preemptory challenges and why would the defense want this? Okay. So a peremptory is I can strike any juror for any reason I want so long as it's not something like based on race, gender, something in a protecting class. So, and those are yours to use for any purpose. Now, granted, usually when the state is striking jurors, the defense is striking jurors, the other side, if anybody falls into a protected class, they can challenge that and ask for the other side to give a race-neutral, gender-neutral reason.

Just so, like, basically, I can't strike all the white males off my panel. Once there's a pattern, the other side can kind of draw it to our attention. I need to give them a race-neutral reason. The number of peremptories, the fact that they're saying they want six, because it is a life, punishable by life, not punished by life, not a mandatory life, but punishable by life, 10 strikes is appropriate according to the Florida rules of criminal procedure. The fact that they're trying to get six kind of leads me to believe that they're trying to create their own error and benefit from it, which you can't do. And it will not shock me based on this defendant's prior conduct in hearing.

and, you know, in his personal life and also just throughout the course of this case, if he doesn't do something in court to try to create his own mistrial. And that, of course, you can't create your mistrial and then benefit from it if you're the defendant. By the way, before I let you go, and obviously it'll be really tough for a jury to be seated on this case and have to hear to these graphic details and see them, ask you real quick about one other potential defense. We know that one of the initial stories from Mr. Fucci when he spoke with the detective was that he and Trist were walking along and she tried to grab his privates. He got agitated,

pushed her. She fell down. He left her there. He was kind of dizzy from smoking marijuana. He also made the allegation that she could have been involved with a drug dealer. I mean, is that something you think the defense is going to explore? Because it doesn't sound great. Yeah, no, that's a terrible defense. I think I almost sprained my eyes rolling them at it. If he left her in the woods in the middle of the night at three o'clock in the morning, who else do you think happened upon her? And also, it is my understanding. And of course, it'll depend on whether the state gets this into evidence and uses it.

But it is my understanding that he has her blood on his pants, on his shoes. So pushing you onto a rock may not cause the kind of blood that we're seeing on him, you know? I lied. One more question about this, because the mother is. accused of tampering with evidence. She's accused of washing those genes, the bloody genes, to get rid of evidence. She's been charged with tampering with evidence. Got to get your thoughts on that. Caviot, I'm not a mother. And I know that most mothers would lay down their lives for their children. That being said, oh my God, it's one of the worst things I've

ever heard. And who hand washes jeans, unless you want to be really sure that you get all the blood off and that maybe you're using hydrogen peroxide on them to, you know, make sure you get all the blood out and stuff like that. I have to imagine, I mean, it's a fairly aspirate community. I have to imagine she had a washer. Hand washing them also, to me, is a red flag. All right, Kathleen, when this trial starts, I'd love to have you back on to talk more because it is definitely something. Kathleen Bogan shoots, thanks for taking the time. Thanks for having me. And that's all we have for you here on Sidebar, everybody.

Thank you so much for joining us. Please subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, wherever you get your podcast. I'm Jesse Weber. I'll speak to 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.