Teen charged with killing stepsister on cruise out of Miami pleads not guilty
The 16-year-old boy charged with raping and killing his 18-year-old stepsister aboard a cruise ship in November pleaded not guilty to the crime this week.
The boy, whose only identified in records as T.H., was not in court, but his federal public-defender attorneys entered the plea Monday, according to court documents.
Prosecutors, meanwhile, want the boy locked up until his trial, court records show. His attorneys argued this week that he should remain in the custody of the third party he’s been staying with since a judge ordered him released on Feb. 6, four days after he was charged as a minor with the death of Anna Kepner.
READ MORE: Stepbrother of teen killed on Carnival cruise charged as adult with her murder
A grand jury indicted the boy as an adult on April 10, and prosecutors argue that he is a danger to the public and should be jailed, according to court filings. His attorneys counter that he is not a flight risk and has complied with the judge’s conditions, which were not publicly available.
The boy 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. If convicted, he faces life in prison.
Kepner was on the cruise with her father, stepmother and two step-siblings, including the 16-year-old boy. The Miami Herald previously reported that T.H. was the focus of the homicide investigation based on Brevard County court documents for a custody case.
The FBI investigated Kepner’s murder because it happened in international waters.
The Miami-Dade Medical Examiner’s Office concluded that her cause of death was asphyxiation.
The stepbrother 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, Chris Kepner.
Thomas Hudson, the boy’s father, is trying to obtain custody of his 9-year-old daughter, who lives with Shauntel Kepner and Chris Kepner. Documents in that case stated the boy is the target of the FBI’s investigation into Anna Kepner’s death.
The custody-case documents also state that the Kepners allowed the boy and Anna to sleep in the same stateroom.
Shauntel Kepner and Thomas Hudson divorced in February 2023 in Lee County, according to state court records. The couple also share an 18-year-old son, who was not on the cruise. Hudson claimed in one filing that his ex-wife took the two minor children on the cruise without his consent.
This story was originally published April 23, 2026 at 4:12 PM with the headline "Teen charged with killing stepsister on cruise out of Miami pleads not guilty."
