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The mother of Aiden Fucci is set to go to trial over charges of tampering with evidence in her son’s case.
Crystal Smith was arrested in June 2021 and has pleaded not guilty to the charges. Her trial is scheduled to open on April 17 and is expected to run through April 28.
Fucci was convicted last month of the murder of his classmate Tristyn Bailey and has been sentenced to life in prison. Now, Ms Fucci is about to come face-to-face with legal difficulties of her own.
According to law enforcement, surveillance footage captured from the aftermath of Fucci’s arrest shows Ms Smith washing blood out of her son’s jeans after he committed the stabbing. Investigators also claim that Ms Smith urged her son to report that he was wearing khakis on the night of the stabbing instead of the jeans and that she told him to “find his story and stick with it” in an interrogation room.
Some of that conduct, if it happened the way investigators claim, could be in violation of laws against evidence tampering in Florida.
Ms Smith’s trial would be another chapter in a horrific case of teen violence. Fucci, who plead guilty to murdering Tristyn, reportedly stabbed her more than 100 times on Mother’s Day two years ago. Her body was found in a wooded area outside Jacksonville. Fucci, who lived close to the site where the body was found, was arrested just hours after the murder.
As he sat in a police car, he made a SnapChat post with the caption, “Hey guys has anybody seen Tristyn lately.” In a video posted to Snapchat around the same time, Fucci says, “We’re having fun, in a f***ing cop car.”
Because Fucci was a minor at the time of the killing, he could not be given the death penalty under Florida law. His sentence can be reviewed after 25 years.