Judge orders 16-year-old charged in stepsister's cruise death held before trial

A federal judge has ordered a 16-year-old charged in the death and sexual assault of his stepsister to remain in jail before and during his trial.

Timothy Hudson was initially released after he was charged as a juvenile in February. In April he was charged as an adult with first-degree murder and aggravated sexual abuse. Magistrate Judge Edwin G. Torres ruled that Hudson was no longer subject to juvenile detention rules.

"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 a June 10 order.

Torres ordered Hudson turned over to the U.S. Marshals Service on Monday morning. He is to be transferred first to Citrus County Jail and then to the Miami-Dade County Metro West Detention Center by July 10.

Hudson was in federal custody as of Monday night, according to a source familiar with the matter. He had been in the custody of his maternal uncle under the earlier release order. Hudson has pleaded not guilty.

Prosecutors said Hudson was traveling on Carnival Cruise Line's Horizon with Kepner, who was 18, and other family members when she was killed in November 2025. The medical examiner found that Kepner had been sexually assaulted and asphyxiated.

Court records show Hudson and Kepner were alone in their cabin from about 7:51 p.m. to 11:21 p.m. the night she died. Prosecutors said 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 noted that the ruling does not convict Hudson in advance and that the presumption of innocence remains intact. He acknowledged that Hudson has no prior criminal history and had complied with release conditions so far, but said those factors were not enough to ensure continued compliance.

"A clean history is reassuring only if it predicts future conduct, and an offense of this gravity allegedly committed without antecedent warning signs undermines the predictive comfort that a clean record usually provides," Torres wrote. He also noted concern that other minors lived in the same house as Hudson.

Hudson's trial is scheduled for September.