The mother of the 14-year-old boy charged with stabbing Florida cheerleader Tristyn Bailey 114 times has been arrested on charges of evidence tampering.
The state attorney alleges that Crystal Lane Smith, 35, tried to wash blood off the blue jeans of her son, Aiden Fucci, after last month’s shocking murder, News4Jax reported on Saturday.
“Tampering with evidence is tampering with justice and cannot be excused or tolerated,” State Attorney R.J. Larizza said in a statement after Smith was booked into St. Johns County Jail.
ADVERTISEMENT
According to the arrest warrant, police said video footage from the night Bailey was killed showed Smith washing the jeans, and subsequently talking with Fucci while the two inspected the jeans.
While in a room at the St. Johns County Sheriff’s office the next day, Smith also asked Fucci if he was certain that his clothes from the previous evening were clean.
“I think so, why?” Fucci asked.
According to the warrant, Smith was observed giving Fucci “a questioning look and whispered ‘Blood.’”
Aiden, who attended the same school as Tristyn, has been charged as an adult with first-degree murder.
In addition to the blood evidence, investigators caught him walking with Tristyn, 13, in a recreation area and then leaving alone. Her body was found the next morning.
Forty-nine of her stab wounds were defensive, indicating she fought for her life as the killer knifed her so furiously that the tip of the blade broke off in her skull.
Authorities have said Tristyn may have been murdered for no other reason than that Fucci had told friends that he planned to kill someone in the woods that evening.
—Maxwell Tani contributed reporting.
