Teen held until trial in stepsister’s cruise ship killing

A federal judge in Florida has ordered 16-year-old Timothy Hudson jailed until trial on charges that he sexually assaulted and killed his stepsister, Anna Kepner, aboard a cruise ship during a family vacation last year.

The ruling, filed June 10 and unsealed Monday, reverses an earlier decision that allowed Hudson to live with his maternal uncle while awaiting trial. Hudson was initially charged as a juvenile in February, but after he was charged in April as an adult with first-degree murder and aggravated sexual abuse, Judge Edwin G. Torres ruled that juvenile detention rules no longer applied.

Hudson has pleaded not guilty. If convicted, NBC News reported, he faces a possible life sentence. His trial is scheduled for September.

“The Government has established, by clear and convincing evidence, that no condition or combination of conditions of release will reasonably assure the safety of the community going forward,” Torres wrote in the order.

Hudson was traveling on Carnival Cruise Line’s Horizon with Kepner, who was 18, and other family members when she was killed on Nov. 7, 2025, according to court records cited by the outlets. Kepner’s father and Hudson’s mother had married in December 2024.

Kepner’s body was found in the room she shared with Hudson. NBC News reported that she was discovered under the bed, wrapped in a blanket and concealed by life vests. The medical examiner concluded that she had been sexually assaulted and asphyxiated, according to the judge’s decision.

Court documents cited by CBS News say Hudson and Kepner were alone in their cabin from about 7:51 p.m. to 11:21 p.m. the night she died. Prosecutors allege that Kepner’s Apple Watch, which tracked her heart rate, stopped working during that period, which they believe is when the crime occurred.

“The danger posed by the conduct charged here — the alleged first-degree murder and aggravated sexual abuse of a young woman and step-sister of the Defendant while they were in confined quarters of a ship at sea — is sufficient by itself to require detention,” Torres wrote. “A now-decreed adult defendant charged on probable cause with deliberately taking a human life, and sexually assaulting his victim in the course of doing so, presents a danger to himself and to others that no curfew, monitor, or custodial placement can be trusted to contain.”

Torres emphasized that the ruling was not a finding of guilt. “This is not to convict the defendant in advance. The presumption of innocence remains fully intact,” he wrote.

The judge acknowledged that Hudson has no prior criminal history and had complied with earlier release conditions, but said those facts did not outweigh the seriousness of the allegations. He wrote that the case suggested “a level of psychopathy and lack of remorse that by itself raises a serious concern that Defendant can snap at any time, despite the well-meaning and serious efforts of his caretakers to make sure that does not happen.”

Torres also cited concern that other minors were living in the same house as Hudson. “The natural response, removing him from contact with vulnerable household members, points to detention, not a condition short of it,” he wrote.

CBS News reported that Torres ordered Hudson turned over to the U.S. Marshals Service on Monday morning, then transferred first to Citrus County Jail and eventually to Miami-Dade County Metro West Detention Center by no later than July 10. NBC South Florida reported that Hudson had been booked into Citrus County jail.

Kepner was a high school senior and cheerleader who hoped to attend the University of Georgia, NBC News reported. Her father described her as a “beautiful, bright young girl” who “had so much life ahead of her, so many dreams, milestones, and moments that were taken far too soon.”