DUVAL COUNTY, Fla. – Before his routine pre-trial hearing Wednesday was passed to Oct. 28, 14-year-old accused killer Aiden Fucci appeared on a video feed from the Duval County jail wearing an orange jumpsuit and a confused expression, News 6 partner WJXT-TV reported.
Fucci, the St. Johns County teen accused of killing his schoolmate, Tristyn Bailey, earlier this year, was led handcuffed into a room with a phone so that he could hear the court proceedings. He appeared frightened and looked around the room with a confused, dazed expression.
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A guard came into the room, took the phone receiver off the wall and handed it to Fucci, who flipped his long hair back and continued looking disoriented as he held the receiver to his ear.
He then started rocking back and forth in his seat, looking around the room in confusion and muttering. At one point, he can be heard talking about demons, saying “Please don’t let the demons take my soul. The demons are going to take my soul away.”
Then he asks, “What’s going on?”
Before saying in a plaintive tone: “Why am I here? I just want to talk to my mom and dad. What’s going on? What’s going on?”
Fucci’s feed eventually ended, and his lawyer filed a speedy trial waiver, which most defendants do. The case was moved to Oct. 28.
A separate hearing scheduled Wednesday for Crystal Smith, Fucci’s mother, was also passed to the same date.
Fucci is charged with first-degree murder in the death of 13-year-old Bailey, whose body was found on Mother’s Day less than a half-mile from Fucci’s home. Fucci is in custody at the Duval County jail while he awaits trial.
Smith is charged with evidence tampering, a third-degree felony, in connection with the case. She is accused of washing a pair of jeans that later tested positive for blood.
Wednesday’s scheduled pretrial hearings followed the release of video footage that included two clips of surveillance video from Durbin Crossing, the subdivision where Fucci and Bailey lived, video from inside Fucci’s home and several clips that were uploaded to Snapchat.
The videos will likely play a role when these cases go to trial.
The first piece of video released was a two-minute clip recorded from a neighbor’s home that shows two people walking along the sidewalk in the subdivision about 12:15 a.m. May 9. The second clip shows someone running alone in the opposite direction over an hour later.
Those clips appear to back up the arrest warrant for Fucci, which said surveillance video showed two people, believed to be the teens, walking east on Saddlestone Drive in the early morning hours of May 9 before one was later seen heading west on the same street.
A 16-minute clip appears to have been recorded on a surveillance camera inside Fucci’s home. At one point, the video shows a woman running upstairs and picking up some clothes from a room, including a pair of jeans, before doing something to them off-camera.
According to charging documents, Smith is accused of washing her son’s blue jeans while he was being questioned about Bailey’s disappearance. Investigators said the jeans tested positive for the presence of blood, despite efforts to clean them.
Other footage released includes three clips of cellphone video. The first shows Fucci and a friend in the back of a patrol car. “Having fun in a (expletive) cop car,” Fucci can be heard saying. “What’s up guys? Tristyn if you (expletive) walk out the damn…” before it cuts off.
The two other cellphone videos show Fucci briefly and the contents of a law enforcement officer’s trunk, which contains a rifle and tactical gear.
Bailey, 13, was reported missing by family May 9 before being found stabbed more than 100 times near a pond in the Durbin Crossing subdivision.
Fucci, who attended Patriot Oaks Academy with Bailey, was arrested a day later and is considered the lone suspect in her murder. Based on the circumstances involved in the case, Fucci will be tried as an adult.