Crime
Anna Kepner’s Stepbrother Remains Free Amid Alleged Cruise Ship Murder
NewsNation senior national correspondent Brian Entin posted a video to X on Wednesday, May 27, that showed the teenager accused of sexually assaulting and killing Anna Kepner aboard a Carnival cruise ship leaving a Miami federal courthouse, without being taken into custody.
According to TMZ, the young man, known as T.H. in court papers, was accompanied by his father as he left the courthouse following a hearing regarding potential changes to the conditions of his pretrial release.
The Associated Press reported that U.S. Magistrate Judge Edwin Torres ended the hearing without a final decision, stating he first wanted to speak with the U.S. Marshals Service about the logistics of potentially housing the defendant in central Florida — closer to his family — instead of South Florida, where the trial will take place. No timeline was provided for when Torres will make his ruling.
As Globe previously reported, the 16-year-old is charged with first-degree murder and aggravated sexual abuse in the death of his stepsister. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
The young man was initially arrested and charged as a juvenile, and Torres ruled in February that he could live with an uncle under electronic monitoring, per the Associated Press. After the case was transferred to adult court, however, prosecutors pushed to have him detained until the trial’s conclusion.
Anna, 18, was a high school cheerleader at Temple Christian School in Titusville, Florida. She had been traveling with her family aboard the Carnival Horizon last November when her body was found concealed under a bed in the cabin she shared with her stepbrother and her teen half-brother.
Anna told her family during dinner that evening that she was not feeling well and returned to the cabin. That same evening, her half-brother got changed and left the room, leaving her alone with her stepbrother.
The Miami-Dade Medical Examiner’s Office determined her cause of death to be mechanical asphyxiation.
