ST. JOHNS COUNTY, Fla. — The video attached to this story is from a previous court appearance.
A St. Johns County mother charged with evidence tampering after her son fatally stabbed 13-year-old Tristyn Bailey in May 2021 will be back in court Tuesday at 10:30 a.m.
The hearing was scheduled Monday in response to a new motion filed by prosecutors. They want to prevent Crystal Smith’s defense team from telling jurors she would have needed to actually destroy or damaged DNA evidence in order to be convicted on the tampering charge.
Smith is accused of washing blood out of her son Aiden’ Fucci’s jeans the morning after he his stabbed his middle school classmate Bailey 114 times. In home surveillance footage appears to show her retrieving his jeans from his bedroom and scrubbing them in the bathroom sink. Investigators said they found Bailey's blood in the drain. Smith has pleaded not guilty.
Fucci was convicted in February after pleading guilty to first-degree murder. Circuit Judge Lee Smith sentenced him to the maximum term for a juvenile; life in prison. Fucci was 14 at the time of the murder. He will be eligible for a sentence review at 25 years, but must serve at least 40 years behind bars regardless of what happens at the review hearing.
Evidence tampering is a third degree felony, punishable up to 5 years in prison and a $5,000 fine.
Smiths’ attorney, Matt Kachergus, previously won another high-profile tampering case – that of former Clay Country Sheriff Darryl Daniels, who was acquitted on all charges last September.