13-Year-Old Cheerleader Tristyn Bailey Was Allegedly Stabbed 114 Times While Fighting Off Killer: Authorities

Tristyn Bailey, the 13-year-old Florida girl who was stabbed to death earlier this month, was allegedly stabbed 114 times before her death while fighting off her killer, authorities said Thursday.

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Courtesy Tanya White Tristyn Bailey

The 14-year-old boy accused of killing Bailey has had his charge upped from second-degree murder to first-degree, and will be charged as an adult, 7th Judicial Circuit State Attorney R.J. Larizza said during a news conference Thursday.

PEOPLE has not yet named the suspect because he is a minor.

“It brings me no pleasure to be charging a 14-year-old as an adult with first-degree murder,” Larizza said, NBC News reported. “But I can tell you also the executive team and I reviewed all the facts, all the circumstances, the applicable law and it was not a difficult decision to make, that he should be charged as an adult.”

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Tristyn Bailey

Larizza said that of the 114 stab wounds Bailey sustained, at least 49 were to her hands, arms and head, USA Today reported. “They were defensive in nature,” he said, adding that “premeditation could be inferred certainly from just the sheer number of stab wounds that Tristyn Bailey had to suffer.”

“Every time that arm went back, and every time that arm went down, that was premeditation,” Larizza said.

“To say that it was horrific could arguably be made as an understatement,” he said.

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