Boy accused of killing stepsister on ship is free, but judge to talk to Marshals
A federal judge in Miami on Wednesday allowed a teen boy charged with sexually assaulting and killing his 18-year-old stepsister on a cruise ship to remain free for now as the judge considers whether to hold him in a juvenile facility.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Edwin Torres initially ruled in February that Timothy Hudson, 16, who was arrested and charged as a juvenile, could live with an uncle in the Tampa area under electronic monitoring. But after a federal grand jury indicted Hudson on charges of murder and aggravated sexual abuse in March, prosecutors sought to place him in custody.
The judge ended the hearing without making a final decision, saying he wanted to speak with the U.S. Marshals Service about the logistics of detaining Hudson in Central Florida, near his family, versus Miami, the site of his trial.
Federal prosecutor Alejandra Lopez urged Torres to detain the stepbrother of Anna Kepner, who was found dead on a Carnival Cruise liner in November after they shared a cabin.
Lopez argued that Hudson “is a danger to others and should be held in pretrial detention” because he’s no longer being prosecuted as a juvenile.
She asked Torres to reconsider his February decision to release Hudson when he was still charged as a juvenile. He was allowed to remain free in the custody of his uncle, but circumstances have dramatically changed now that the teen faces life in prison after a Miami grand jury charged him as an adult.
The teen pleaded not guilty to the two charges in the indictment in April. Hudson, who is represented by the federal public defender’s office, is scheduled for trial in early September after his lawyers sought a three-month continuance citing the prosecution’s “voluminous” evidence.
Hudson is accused of killing and raping Kepner, whose body was found underneath a bed in her stateroom by cleaning staff aboard the Carnival Horizon on Nov. 7, one day before the ship docked at PortMiami.
READ MORE: Family of girl killed on Miami-based cruise says stepbrother charged: court doc
Kepner was on the cruise with her father, stepmother and two step-siblings, including Timothy Hudson, who the Miami Herald previously reported was the focus of the homicide investigation.
The FBI investigated the case because the killing happened in international waters. The Miami-Dade Medical Examiner’s Office concluded that Anna’s cause of death was asphyxiation.
The boy has long been known to be the focus of the investigation because of court documents filed in Brevard County related to his divorced parents’ custody case. The boy’s mother, Shauntel Kepner, is married to Anna’s father, Christopher Kepner.
In that case, the boy’s father, Thomas Hudson, is trying to get custody of his 9-year-old daughter, who lives with Shauntel Kepner and Christopher Kepner. Documents in that case stated the boy was the target of the FBI’s investigation into Anna’s death.
Court documents also stated that the Kepners allowed the boy and Anna to sleep in the same stateroom together.
Kepner’s father previously released a statement, saying the family was placing “trust in the justice system to pursue the truth with care and integrity.”
“The situation is deeply painful and complex for the entire family,” Christopher Kepner said.
Anna Kepner was a high-school cheerleader at Temple Christian School in Titusville, about 40 miles east of Orlando. At her memorial service in November, family members encouraged people to wear bright colors instead of the traditional black “in honor of Anna’s bright and beautiful soul.”
Hudson claimed in one filing that his ex-wife took the two minor children on the cruise without his consent.