Teen charged with killing Florida stepsister on cruise ship pleads not guilty

Carnival Cruise Line's Carnival Horizon cruise ship is shown docked at PortMiami, April 9, 2021, in Miami.

MIAMI — A teenager charged with killing his stepsister on a Carnival Cruise ship filed a not-guilty plea Tuesday and waived his appearance at a hearing in Miami federal court.

Timothy Hudson has received the indictment and is waiving his appearance at an arraignment scheduled for Wednesday, defense attorney Eric Cohen said in a court filing. The 16-year-old also signed the one-page document.

Cohen didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking further comment

Hudson is being prosecuted as an adult in the death of 18-year-old Anna Kepner, whose body was found under a bed in a Carnival Horizon room that she was sharing with him and another teen during a family trip in November.

Hudson is charged with murder and aggravated sexual abuse. He has been free in the care of an uncle since his arrest in February, though prosecutors now want a judge to lock him up while the case unfolds. That issue is unsettled.

Kepner was a high school cheerleader at Temple Christian School in Titusville, Florida, about 40 miles (65 kilometres) east of Orlando. The cause of her Nov. 6 death was determined to be mechanical asphyxia, which is when an object or force stops someone from breathing.

Records and hearings in the case were closed to the public for weeks because Hudson was initially charged as a minor. But U.S. District Judge Beth Bloom granted the government’s request to have him prosecuted as an adult. The case was unsealed on April 10.