A Florida girl whose teen son was sentenced to life in jail for stabbing a cheerleader 114 occasions pleaded no contest to a cost of proof tampering within the killing, officers mentioned Friday.
Crystal Smith, 37, was sentenced to 30 days in jail and 5 years of probation for the crime, a Third-degree felony, the state lawyer’s workplace for Florida’s seventh Judicial Circuit mentioned in a press release.
Smith was captured on a house safety digicam washing the blood out of Aiden Fucci’s denims after the Might 9, 2021, killing of Tristyn Bailey, 13, the assertion mentioned.
“What the defendant did was not defending her baby — she was aiding him in avoiding duty for a very vicious and cruel crime,” State Legal professional R.J. Larizza mentioned in a press release.
Smith didn’t handle the courtroom in the course of the listening to however her lawyer, Matt Kachergus, mentioned that Smith didn’t know why her son’s denims have been bloody when she washed them, NBC affiliate WTLV of Jacksonville reported.
“She was a frantic mom making an attempt to find out what was happening along with her son,” he mentioned, in response to the station.
Kachergus added that solely later did she study what her son had carried out, the station reported.
In a tearful sufferer influence assertion made in the course of the listening to, Tristyn’s mom, Stacey Bailey, mentioned the alternatives Smith had made on Mom’s Day 2021 “will hang-out me for the remainder of my life,” the station reported.
“I’ve tried to place myself in your sneakers on that fateful day a thousand occasions, however I can’t,” she mentioned, WTLV reported.
Fucci, who was 14 when he was arrested shortly after the killing, was sentenced in March after pleading responsible to first-degree homicide.
Tristyn was discovered lifeless within the woods exterior Jacksonville. In accordance with a possible trigger affidavit, Fucci informed investigators that he obtained into an argument with Tristyn and pushed her to the bottom after they left a mutual pal’s house earlier than daybreak Might 9, 2021.
Earlier than he was thought of a suspect, Fucci snapped a photograph of himself behind a police car flashing a peace signal and posted the picture to social media with the caption: “Hey guys has anyone seen Tristyn currently.”
He was arrested Might 10, 2021, and initially accused of second-degree homicide.
Days later, a grand jury indicted him on a first-degree homicide cost, and Fucci was tried as an grownup.
This text was initially revealed on NBCNews.com