MIAMI \u2014 A federal judge on Wednesday declined to jail a Florida teenager accused of killing and sexually assaulting his stepsister, allowing him to remain in the custody of a family member while he awaits trial.<\/p>\n
Timothy Hudson, 16, has been free since the slaying of Anna Kepner, who died on Nov. 7, 2025, aboard a Carnival cruise ship. At the time he was arrested and charged as a juvenile and allowed to live with an uncle because of his age. But in April a federal grand jury indicted him as an adult, introducing the possibility that he could be jailed as he awaits trial. <\/p>\n
\u201cIf it were a 20-year-old under the exact circumstances I probably would have detained,\u201d U.S. District Judge Edwin Torres said. \u201cThe presumption would be we were just not going to take that chance.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a different animal,\u201d Torres said.<\/p>\n Torres took into consideration that detaining Hudson in Miami-Dade County \u2014 where he was charged \u2014 would make it difficult for his family, which lives hundreds of miles away in Hernando County, to visit him. <\/p>\n The judge said he wanted to \u201cknow what my options are\u201d about potentially detaining Hudson closer to home before deciding to hold him behind bars.<\/p>\n Alejandra Lopez, a lawyer for the government, argued that Hudson is \u201ca danger to the community\u201d and questioned how authorities can trust \u201cthis defendant won\u2019t act again.\u201d <\/p>\n She noted that two minors live in Hudson\u2019s uncle\u2019s home, where he is residing. <\/p>\n \u201cWhat is needed to prove a danger? A second dead body?\u201d she asked.<\/p>\n Evan Kuhl, a public defender representing Hudson, argued that his client is not a danger to the public or a flight risk because he has abided by the conditions of his release for several months without any incidents. <\/p>\n Lopez shot back that it took months after Kepner\u2019s death for officials to charge Hudson because authorities were gathering evidence. <\/p>\n \u201cHow is he going to be a risk of flight if he doesn\u2019t even know if he\u2019s going to be charged?\u201d she asked. \u201cThat doesn\u2019t make sense.\u201d<\/p>\n Hudson is only allowed to leave his house with his uncle or aunt and will be electronically monitored by authorities.<\/p>\n The November cruise vacation included the victim\u2019s father, stepmother and two of her children, including Hudson. Kepner\u2019s father and Hudson\u2019s mother married in December 2024.<\/p>\n Kepner\u2019s body was found wrapped in a blanket, bruised and under a bed in her room, concealed by life vests. Her death was ruled a homicide caused by \u201cmechanical asphyxiation,\u201d according to the Miami-Dade medical examiner.<\/p>\n The girl and her stepbrother were sharing a room on the cruise, according to Hudson\u2019s father\u2019s lawyer. <\/p>\n The teenager was arrested while the ship was in international waters en route to Miami. He was hospitalized upon the ship\u2019s docking and has since been in counseling, according to a lawyer for his mother.<\/p>\n On the day Hudson\u2019s indictment was made public, Chris Kepner \u2014 Anna Kepner\u2019s father and Hudson\u2019s stepfather \u2014 declared that \u201cjustice needs to be served.\u201d<\/p>\n Kepner was a high school senior and cheerleader, with hopes of cheerleading for the University of Georgia. She was remembered in her obituary for lacking a filter and being \u201cbubbly, funny, outgoing, and completely herself.\u201d At the time, her family said that \u201cin true Anna fashion, the family would like everyone to know there is no GoFundMe\u201d for her funeral. She was set to graduate from high school this spring. <\/p>\n Hudson\u2019s trial could begin in September, Lopez said Wednesday.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" MIAMI \u2014 A federal judge on Wednesday declined to jail a Florida teenager accused of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22035,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22034","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stock"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businessprofittoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22034","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businessprofittoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businessprofittoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businessprofittoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businessprofittoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22034"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/businessprofittoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22034\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businessprofittoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22035"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businessprofittoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22034"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businessprofittoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22034"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businessprofittoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22034"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}