Judge keeps stepbrother free pending September trial

judge keeps – A federal judge ruled on May 27 that the 16-year-old accused in Anna Kepner’s death aboard a cruise ship will remain free until his September trial. Newly unsealed court documents also shed new detail on the medical examiner’s findings and the timeline of the

The order came on May 27, and it left a stark question hanging over a case already defined by speed, secrecy, and violence: how much time would pass before the teenager accused of killing 18-year-old Anna Kepner faced a jury.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Edwin Torres decided the 16-year-old stepbrother accused of sexually abusing and killing his stepsister will not be jailed ahead of his upcoming trial in September. Federal prosecutors had urged pretrial detention. but Torres ruled that the teen would remain free while the case moves forward in adult court in Florida.

Torres reviewed those arguments during a hearing on whether the suspect should be placed in pretrial detention. Prosecutors’ motions centered on custody concerns, but the judge found a different path—one shaped by what federal facilities can and cannot do for juveniles.

If the court had ordered the teen held in custody. he could have been placed in a contracted. state-run juvenile facility in Florida. because there are no federal holding facilities for juveniles in the state. The murder trial itself was initially set to begin June 1 before being continued until September.

The case turns on what happened aboard a family cruise earlier this year. Prosecutors said Anna Kepner was found dead Nov. 7, 2025, in the cruise ship cabin she shared with the 16-year-old and a 10-year-old male sibling. Kepner’s biological father and stepmother were staying in another cabin across the hall on the ship.

The teenager, whose name has not been released because of his age, has been free and in his uncle’s custody since pleading not guilty last month to charges of first-degree murder and aggravated sexual abuse.

In a separate ruling the same day, Torres ordered the unsealing of a transcript from a February hearing. The transcript provides additional details about the timeline of Kepner’s death and what the medical examiner concluded.

The medical examiner found that Kepner had bleeding under the skin around the side and back of her neck. a finding described as indicative of strangulation. The cause of death was ruled mechanical asphyxiation. The examiner also found significant bruising on Kepner’s left ear. suggesting she had been held in a chokehold “with enough force that such bruising and blood were in the ear area. ” Assistant U.S. Attorney Alejandra L. López said during the hearing.

Investigators also reported that Kepner’s body was found fully clothed under a bed. DNA found inside Kepner’s body came back as a strong match for her stepbrother, according to the transcript, which identified him in the filing simply as T.T.

The chronology in the unsealed transcript traces how the night unfolded, anchored to investigators’ accounts and surveillance footage.

On Nov. 6, 2025, Kepner’s family met for dinner on the ship after spending the day in Cozumel, Mexico. Kepner told her family that she did not feel well and complained of pain in her mouth from her braces as well as an upset stomach.

Surveillance footage captured Kepner returning to her room alone at about 7:38 p.m. local time. The transcript says T entered the room about three minutes earlier.

Kepner’s 10-year-old brother—identified in filings as C—was the third person staying in the room. Investigators said he last saw Kepner when he returned to the room briefly at 7:51 p.m.

A fitness watch that Kepner was wearing stopped working at some point between 7:50 and 10 p.m., according to testimony. At 10:13 p.m., T opens the cabin door, looks left and right down the hallway, then walks out. Over the next half-hour, he is seen entering and exiting the cabin two more times.

At 10:53 p.m., T exits the cabin and puts the privacy sign on the door before returning after 11 p.m. C returns to the cabin for two minutes at about 11:20 p.m. but does not see Kepner inside before leaving. The transcript states that T also left the room and returned around 11:44 p.m.

At 12:09 a.m., C returns to the room to go to sleep. When he opens the door, the transcript says T puts his arm out to block C from entering. T tells C that he is changing, makes him wait outside for a few minutes, and then lets him in.

In the morning, T leaves the cabin several times starting at 9 a.m. Just before 10 a.m., he leaves the room holding something in his left hand, walks upstairs to the rear of the ship, and is seen reaching in an area near the trash bin where Kepner’s cell phone is later found.

A cruise employee and supervisor enter the room at 11:24 a.m. and find Kepner’s body. At 11:27 a.m., T walks by the cabin and, despite several people being inside with the door open, does not look inside the room, instead walking away.

The sequence laid out in the transcript is unbroken by the kind of uncertainty that often clouds cases in their early stages: movement. access to the cabin. and the moments leading to the discovery of Kepner’s body are all tied to specific times. When the final finding is strangulation consistent bruising and an asphyxiation ruling. prosecutors’ narrative becomes harder to separate from the timeline itself.

As for what happens next, the judge’s order keeps the accused stepbrother out of pretrial detention as the case heads toward a September trial in Florida.

For Kepner’s family and the people watching the proceedings. the decision means waiting—while the courtroom arguments continue and the unsealed details remain the clearest picture yet of what investigators say happened between the moment Kepner returned to her cabin and the moment a cruise employee and supervisor entered at 11:24 a.m. and found her.

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