Description
One by one, friends and family members of a murdered 13-year-old took the stand in a St. Johns County courtroom Wednesday to offer victim impact statements in the sentencing of her killer.
Their grief was laid bare, as Tristyn Bailey’s siblings, parents and friends urged Circuit Judge Lee Smith to sentence now 16-year-old Aiden Fucci to life in prison. As each took the stand, they placed a heart shaped stone in a glass on the witness stand, each symbolizing something lost because of Tristyn’s murder.
They spoke of PTSD, crippling anxiety, trauma migraines. They told the judge the fallout of the savage crime has included failing relationships, physical deterioration, in one case, even dependency to “numb” the pain.
“You can only imagine how the pain he put her through stays with us," Tristyn’s father Forrest Bailey told the judge.
At one point, he addressed Fucci directly and referenced his brief, lackluster apology when he pleaded guilty last month.
MORE: https://www.wtsp.com/article/news/crime/aiden-fucci-victim-impact-statements-tristyn-bailey-mother/77-182d48f0-412c-4d68-a317-200b9b6ebcf3
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