Tristyn family said the plea offered them 'significant relief'
A teenager accused of stabbing a 13-year-old cheerleader 114 times pleaded guilty to first-degree murder on Monday.
The plea, almost two years after the stabbing of Tristyn Bailey, came one day before jury selection was to begin in the trial of Aiden Fucci, who was 14 when he was arrested in the May 9, 2021, killing, the state’s attorney’s office for Florida’s Seventh Judicial District said in a statement.
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“Today was a major event in this case,” State Attorney R.J. Larizza said, according to
US media reports.
Prosecutors will seek the maximum penalty - a life sentence - and had offered no other plea deal to Fucci, he said.
The lawyer for the accused is yet to comment on the plea.
WTLV reported that Tristyn's family said that they were confident prosecutors would have secured a guilty verdict but that the surprise plea brought "significant relief".
The family said in a statement, according to the NBC affiliate: "Just as Tristyn fought for her life, we equally fought for her and would not agree to any plea deal.
"We were fully aligned with the prosecutor in rejecting the proposed plea deals mentioned by the Public Defender during the plea hearing.”
Tristyn was found dead in woods outside Jacksonville on 9 May 2021.
Fucci reportedly told authorities that he got into an argument with Tristyn and pushed her to the ground after they left a mutual friend's before dawn on May 9.
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