Florida teenager Aiden Fucci pleaded guilty to 114 fatal stabbings of a classmate.

ST. Augustine, Florida. On Monday, a Florida teenager pleaded guilty to fatally wounded a 13-year-old classmate 114 times in 2021.

The plea deal was struck as jury selection was scheduled to begin Monday morning in the first-degree murder trial of Aiden Fucci, who was 14 when Tristin Bailey was killed, prosecutors said.

“I just want to say that I plead guilty and I feel sorry for the Bailey family and my family,” Fucci, 16, told a judge in St. Augustine on Monday morning.

The judge accepted the plea deal and said Fucci’s sentencing would come at a later date. He faces life imprisonment.

The girl’s family reported her missing on Mother’s Day 2021 and her body was found in the woods after a one-day search. Evidence, including video surveillance, led investigators to Fucci. He was initially charged with second-degree murder, but the charge was upgraded due to the gravity of the crime.

WTLV/Courtesy

R. J. Larizza, State Attorney for Florida’s 7th Judicial District, said during a press conference following Fucci’s arrest that Bailey had been stabbed 114 times. He said that at least 49 of them were inflicted on the hands, forearms and head and were defensive in nature.

In a statement sent Monday, St. John’s County Sheriff Robert Hardwick praised the work done by investigators in the case.

“This was the entire effort of the agency,” the sheriff said in a statement. “The process of preparing for a trial is as tedious as the investigation itself. Detectives haven’t stopped working on this case since the first call we got.”

Hardwicke noted that investigators were working with the state’s attorney’s office to close the case.