A judge in a St. Johns County courtroom on Friday sentenced 16-year-old Aiden Fucci to life in prison for the first-degree murder of 13-year-old cheerleader Tristyn Bailey, his friend and Patriot Oaks Academy classmate, in a case that drew national attention to the Northeast Florida county, one of the wealthiest in the state.

The sentence comes after two days of testimony before Judge R. Lee Smith, including hours of heartwrenching victim impact statements on Wednesday from Tristyn Bailey's parents, grandmother, best friend and siblings, including her older sister, Alexis Bailey, who began her statement by dropping into a jar 114 aqua stone hearts — one for each of the stab wounds she endured during the Mother's Day 2021 attack at the hands of Fucci, then just 14 years old.

One by one they implored the judge to sentence Fucci to a life term in prison.

Speaking on behalf of Fucci, his grandmother, Deborah Spiwak, told the judge on Wednesday that she knew her grandson had to be punished for his actions but she pleaded, "Please don't take him out of our lives forever ... I know there's some good in Aiden."

Because Fucci is a juvenile, an automatic life sentence was not an option. Instead, the St. Johns County teen faced a minimum of 40 years to life in prison. After serving 25 years of a life term, the judge can review the possibility of a lighter sentence, according to Florida law.

Everything to know about the case:Aiden Fucci stabbed 13-year-old Tristyn Bailey 114 times

Grief, despair, anger and anxiety:Tristyn Bailey's family describes never-ending torment Aiden Fucci has put them through

"Aiden Fucci, you have destroyed me":Tristyn Bailey's family reads victim impact statements at Aiden Fucci's sentencing

Long awaited: Here's what Aiden Fucci and parents have to say in Tristyn Bailey slaying

What happened to Tristyn Bailey?

Tristyn was reported missing by her family at 10 a.m. on Mother's Day, May 9, 2021. Evidence revealed that she and Aiden Fucci had been at a friend's home in their Durbin Crossing neighborhood in northwest St. Johns County and were last seen walking together after 1 a.m. that morning. Seventeen hours later, her body was discovered in the woods off a neighborhood cul-de-sac.

What happened to Tristyn Bailey? Here's everything you need to know

How did Tristyn Bailey die?

According to Chief Medical Examiner Predrag Bulic, the cause of Tristyn's death was "sharp force trauma by stabbing." An autopsy revealed Tristyn had 114 "stab or cutting wounds about her head, neck, shoulders, arms, hands and back," according to an unredacted warrant affidavit released by the state attorney. Forty-nine of those wounds were deemed defensive wounds by the medical examiner.

Timeline: Events in the disappearance, death of Tristyn Bailey

Saturday, May 8, 2021

• 11:45 p.m.: Bailey family returns home after an evening out.

• Around midnight: Tristyn Bailey last seen by a sibling and was supposed to be sleeping in her bedroom.

Sunday, May 9

• 12:30 a.m.: Video shows Tristyn walking in the neighborhood

• 1:14 a.m.: Two people, believed to be Tristyn and Aiden, were seen walking together

• 1:45 a.m.: Video evidence from a home shows Tristyn and Aiden walking east on Saddlestone Drive

• 3:30 a.m.: Video from the same home shows a person believed to be Aiden heading in opposite direction alone, carrying white Nike shoes. Moments later, video shows Aiden entering his home carrying white Nike shoes

• 10 a.m.: Tristyn's mother calls 911 to report the teen missing. Florida Department of Law Enforcement joins search

• 4:49 p.m.: Florida Missing Child Alert issued for Tristyn

• 6:06 p.m.: A resident who had been on a run called to report a dead body in the woods east of the cul-de-sac on Saddlestone Drive. After identifying the body as Tristyn's, the St. Johns County Sheriff's Office calls off the search

• 8 p.m.: Sheriff's Office announces body found and preliminarily identified as Tristyn Bailey

• 8:49 p.m.: Aiden and his parents are placed in a St. Johns County Sheriff's Office interview room

Monday, May 10

• 12:44 a.m.: Investigators search Fucci home, finding a knife sheath; a pair of wet, white Nike shoes with blood on them; a T-shirt with blood on it; a white piece of paper with handwriting with possible blood on it; and a pair of wet blue denim jeans in a laundry basket. They also find blood and dirt on the drain in the bathroom sink next to Aiden's bedroom.

• 3:30 a.m.: Aiden arrested on charge of second-degree murder

• 11:30 a.m.: Sheriff's Office confirms identity of body found as that of Tristyn Bailey and announces arrest of Aiden Fucci, a 14-year-old classmate, on charges of second-degree murder. (Two weeks later, Fucci was charged with first-degree murder.)

More details:Events in the disappearance, death of Florida 13-year-old Tristyn Bailey

What happened to Tristyn Bailey? Court records detail what happened the night she was killed

Other notable Jacksonville-area child murders, abductions

Nov. 6, 2019: Taylor Rose Williams, 5, is reported missing around 7:20 a.m. by her mother, Brianna Williams, at their Brentwood home. Days later, her remains were discovered in a wooded area between Demopolis and Linden, Ala., and her mother was arrested on charges of child neglect and giving false information to investigators.

July 24, 2015: Lonzie Barton, 21 months, is reported missing at 2:20 a.m. by William Ruben Ebron Jr., the boyfriend of his mother, Lonna Lauramore Barton. Ebron said his car, with Lonzie inside, had been stolen from his apartment building’s parking lot and he was unable to chase it down. But residential security video later surfaced showing him staging the car theft, police said. Ebron lead police to the toddler’s body on Jan. 11, 2016. Ebron is in prison until 2040; Lonna Lauramore Barton was sentenced to five years in prison for her role in Lonzie’s death and another seven years on a drug charge.

June 22, 2013: Cherish Perrywinkle, 8, is abducted from a Jacksonville Walmart, raped and murdered. Perrywinkle’s body was found hours later and Donald James Smith, 56, a sexual offender with a history of crimes against children, was arrested. Smith was found guilty on Valentine’s Day 2018 and sentenced to death in December 2018.

Feb. 10, 2010: Makia Ann Coney, 17,  a student at University Christian School, is shot and killed by classmates Charles Roy Southern, 17, and Connor Julian Pridgen, 16, after school.

Oct. 19, 2009: Somer Thompson, 7, is last seen at 2:45 p.m. walking home from Grove Park Elementary School on Gano Avenue in Orange Park. Two days later, her body was found in a Georgia landfill. In March 2010, Jarred Harrell was arrested and charged with her murder. In February 2012, Harrell pleaded guilty and was sentenced to six life sentences.

Feb. 10, 2009: Haleigh Cummings, 5, is reported missing at 3:17 a.m. from her parents’ home in Satsuma in Putnam County. After more than a decade, she is still missing.

July 29, 2007: Tony Youmans, 12, is last seen at 4:30 p.m. on Hyde Park Road. He was found two days later in a nearby park dead from a gunshot wound to the head. Authorities said he died “while playing around with the firearm.” Derrick Glover, 24, was sentenced to 15 years in prison for selling the gun that killed Youmans to him.

Nov. 3, 1998: Maddie Clifton, 8, is reported missing at 7 p.m. A week after disappearing, her body was found under the waterbed of her 14-year-old neighbor, Josh Phillips, by the boy’s mother. Phillips was arrested and charged with murder after telling police he accidentally hit Maddie with a baseball, then panicked because he feared getting in trouble. He said he then hit her with a bat and stabbed her to stop her screaming. Tried as an adult, Phillips was found guilty of murder in the first degree in July 1999 and sentenced to life in prison without parole a month later.

July 10, 1998: Kamiyah Mobley is abducted hours after her birth at University Medical Center by a woman posing as a nurse. Nearly 19 years later, on Jan. 13, 2017, Kamiyah was found alive and well, living in South Carolina with her abductor, Gloria Williams. Williams pleaded guilty in May 2018 and later sentenced to 18 years in prison.

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Tristyn Bailey's Florida teen killer Aiden Fucci sentenced to life