ST. JOHNS COUNTY, Fla. – The trial for the St. Johns County mother accused of tampering with evidence in the case against her teenage son, Aiden Fucci, has been pushed back to next month.
Jury selection for Crystal Smith’s trial will now begin May 15, rather than five days from now.
Fucci is serving a life sentence for murdering his schoolmate, 13-year-old Tristyn Bailey, in May 2021.
Smith is charged with tampering with evidence after investigators say she washed her son’s jeans, which later tested positive for blood, while the rest of the neighborhood was out searching for a missing Tristyn.
“Can a juror come in and be impartial and not be impacted or affected by what has already happened in this? And finding that juror and all of those jurors is going to be a very difficult process,” said attorney Gene Nichols, who is not connected to the case.
Smith appeared in court Wednesday for the first time since her first appearance.
Tristyn’s parents were also there, wearing the aqua color that has become a symbol of their daughter’s legacy and their fight for justice.
After the court proceeding, they posted to the Tristyn Bailey Strong Facebook page:
Prosecutors say that as investigators questioned Fucci during the search for Tristyn on Mother’s Day in 2021, video surveillance taken from inside her home showed Smith appearing to wash something in a sink. It was her son’s jeans that later tested positive for blood, according to investigators.
RELATED: Arraignment set for Aiden Fucci’s mother on tampering with evidence charge | Aiden Fucci booked into Suwannee Correctional Institution
There is also a video of Fucci inside an interrogation room with his parents, including Smith. In the video, she appeared to hint at the issue of the jeans.
“She may be willing to go to trial to determine if they can prove, if they knew what was in her brain at the time she committed the crime, not what happened an hour later or 10 hours later,” Nichols said. “On that date did she know what was happening, and that’s what the state has to prove and that’s not an easy thing to prove.”
Nichols also said there could be jurors who side with Smith.
“There are going to be jurors if you can believe it, that are going to be sympathetic to her. Would a parent have done the same thing?” he said.
But Nichols said in the end, he doesn’t think the case will go to trial. He said he thinks Smith could take a negotiated plea deal instead.
If it does go to trial, Nichols said, the defense could file a motion to move the trial out of St. Johns County if an impartial jury can’t be found.
While Smith apologized for her son’s actions prior to his sentencing, the Bailey family sees otherwise.
“With regard to Crystal Smith and her apology, as I mentioned before there’s an open case with her so it’s difficult to comment,” Tristyn’s father, Forrest Bailey, said after Fucci’s sentencing. “The fact that we are continuing to have to go through the legal process makes the apology questionable. You’ve seen the videos from the home, you’ve seen the videos from the interrogation room. I would say if she’s sorry she can start by accepting responsibility.”
The maximum time in prison for an evidence tampering charge is five years.
