14-Year Old FL Boy Pleads Not Guilty in Violent Murder of 13-Year-Old Cheerleader Tristyn Bailey

14-year-old Aiden Fucci pleaded not guilty to the vicious murder of 13-year-old Tristyn Bailey. WJXT in Jacksonville, Florida reported the boy’s public defender submitted a written not guilty plea on Thursday. Fucci was accused of murdering Bailey by allegedly stabbing her 114 times.  Prosecutors had already upgraded charges and filed a motion in order to charge Fucci as an adult with premeditated first-degree murder.

In a press conference last week, state attorney for Florida’s Seventh Judicial Circuit, R.J. Larizza, stated “I hope that parents will learn something from this, this vicious and brutal murder, and that is that you need to know what your kids are doing and what they are saying…Because while we might not be able to stop these brutal and vicious murders from happening, we ought to at least try.”

During a previous press conference on May 28, Larizza said Fucci “had told friends that he was going to kill someone and that it was imminent – within the next 30 days or within the month.” Apparently the young boy “indicated to witnesses that he was going to kill someone by taking them in the woods and stabbing them, which are certainly the facts of this case” added Larizza.

Bailey was reported missing by her family on May 9. On May 10 she was discovered by police in a wooded area near St. Johns, Florida. Fucci was arrested the very next day. According to a St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office press release, Fucci was taken into custody after “admissions during questioning” and the discovery of Baily’s body.

After the boy was taken into custody, police looked into his social media posts, which eerily included a photo he took of himself from the back of a deputy’s car with the caption, “Hey guys, has inybody (sic) seen Tristyn lately.”