The baby-faced teen accused of sexually assaulting and killing his stepsister, Anna Kepner, on a family cruise was ordered behind bars until his trial – after months of being out on bail.

Timothy Hudson, 16, will be transferred into a US Marshal’s custody and held at the Citrus County Jail, according to court documents obtained by NBC Miami that were filed last week.

Timothy Hudson, center, charged with sexually assaulting and killing his stepsister, arriving for a hearing.
Timothy Hudson, accused of sexually assaulting and killing his stepsister, Anna Kepner, on a family cruise was ordered to be detained until his trial after months of walking free.AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell
Hudson will undergo yet another mental health evaluation at the county jail. Once that is completed, he must be transferred to the juvenile facility at Miami-Dade’s Metro West Detention Center no later than July 10, according to the court order.

The 16-year-old is being tried as an adult on murder and aggravated sexual abuse charges. He faces up to life in prison.

Prosecutors requested that Hudson be held while awaiting the September trial. The federal judge presiding over the case agreed that “the danger posed by the conduct charged” was enough to “require detention.”

“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,”  US Magistrate Judge Edwin G. Torres wrote in the order.

Anna Kepner posing in a silver dress on a cruise ship balcony overlooking the ocean.
Anna Kepner, 18, was reported dead while aboard the Carnival Horizon cruise ship on Nov. 8, 2025.Instagram/@anna.kepner16
Hudson was living under the supervision of his paternal uncle in a home with two minors before the judge’s ruling.

Torres previously decreed in late May that Hudson could stay with family while he consulted with jail officials about housing the teen at a facility near his family.

“If it were a 20-year-old under the exact circumstances, I probably would have detained,” Torres explained, according to a report by NBC News. “The presumption would be we were just not going to take that chance.”

“This is a different animal.”

Torres said he would speak with the US Marshals about placing Hudson in a Hernando County lock-up so he could stay close to his family.

Timothy Hudson, flanked by a man in a suit and a man in sunglasses, is escorted by his family out of the Miami Federal courthouse, surrounded by media.
Hudson and family leaving the Miami Federal court on May 27, 2026.Romain Maurice for NY Post
The Miami-Dade detention center Torres ultimately decided on is hundreds of miles away from Hudson’s family home.

Kepner, 18, was strangled to death inside a Carnival cruise cabin she shared with Hudson and her 13-year-old brother.

Hudson allegedly mechanically asphyxiated her in a bar hold and stashed her body under her bed – while her younger brother unknowingly slept mere feet from her corpse.

The accused murderer reportedly had a twisted obsession with his high school senior stepsister and forced Kepner to “engage in a sexual act” and penetrated her, as alleged in the superseding indictment.

Hudson was initially charged in February as a juvenile in the case, but prosecutors secured an indictment charging him as an adult for first-degree murder in April.

He has pleaded not guilty.

SOURCE: https://nypost.com/2026/06/15/us-news/baby-faced-stepbrother-accused-of-killing-anna-kepner-on-cruise-ordered-to-jail-ahead-of-trial/?utm_campaign=nypost&utm_source=facebook&sr_share=facebook&utm_medium=social&fbclid=IwY2xjawSdhJxleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETEyMXNvYkhOZ0JrM1JIcXBqc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQQMjIyMDM5MTc4ODIwMDg5MgABHn-LTPEeCXAYhrZ-JCw3EFIDPYCHauNW8SgvgHbg-5HizIxnECe1zERqoEGw_aem_YWdncwDAJvjfUCXiY973s-TgAEV-&brid=YWdncwERygn1VVdZ-Gn3v6sjtiad