The trial for the baby-faced teen charged with murdering his cheerleader stepsister Anna Kepner has been delayed for a second time.
Timothy Hudson, 16, will now go on trial over final November’s Carnival Horizon cruise ship killing on Nov. 2 after a Florida decide granted a request for a delay, which was made by his attorneys, on Tuesday, WOFL reported.
Hudson was alleged to go on trial on June 1 earlier than the date was moved to Sept. 8.
Hector Dopico, an assistant federal public defender, referred to as for the delay so the protection might “full their investigation of points that can probably impression the decision of his case,” based on courtroom paperwork seen by the outlet.
“Though protection counsel have spent a big period of time reviewing the invention supplied by the federal government and researching numerous problems with potential relevance, their preparations will not be but full,” he stated within the submitting.
The “seriousness of the offenses alleged” and Hudson’s “standing as a juvenile” had been two components that influenced the delay movement, based on the courtroom paperwork.
Hudson is being tried as an grownup on homicide and aggravated sexual abuse fees – and faces as much as life in jail if convicted for allegedly killing Kepner. He has till Oct. 23 to plead responsible to the fees.
Dopico additionally stated the protection wanted extra time due to “the distinctive – and really unlucky – household dynamic that has resulted from the allegations right here.”
Prosecutors didn’t oppose the protection’s request and Hudson’s trial was pushed again.
The trial now seems to be set to get underway nearly a 12 months after Hudson allegedly sexually assaulted and killed Kepner on the ship.
Kepner, 18, was strangled to dying inside a cabin she shared with Hudson and her 13-year-old brother.
Kepner was alone together with her stepbrother, who is alleged to have had an obsession together with her, between 7:51 p.m. and 11:21 p.m. on Nov. 6 – the day earlier than her physique was discovered.
Her Apple Watch, which monitored her coronary heart charge, stopped working through the three-and-a-half-hour interval – a timeframe prosecutors suspect the crime occurred.
Kepner died whereas the ship was in worldwide waters and FBI brokers had been unable to search out her watch once they boarded the vessel after it docked in Miami.
Hudson allegedly mechanically asphyxiated her in a bar maintain and stashed her physique below her mattress – whereas her youthful brother unknowingly slept mere ft from her corpse.
Kepner had a bruised neck and bruises and blood had been additionally found round her ear.
At round 10:13 p.m., Hudson poked his head out of the cabin room to see if anybody was there earlier than leaving, prosecutors stated.
He went into the room two extra instances between 10:23 p.m. and 10:49 p.m.
Hudson then went into the cabin room at 11:31 p.m. earlier than leaving and returning 13 minutes later.
Kepner’s physique was discovered round 12 hours after Hudson returned to the cabin for the ultimate time.
Hudson “did knowingly and unlawfully perpetrate” the “wilful, deliberate, malicious and premeditated killing of [Kepner] with malice afterthought,” a grand jury wrote in its indictment earlier this 12 months.
Kepner, a straight-A scholar who had aspirations to affix the army, was killed simply six months earlier than she was set to graduate from Titusville’s Temple Christian Faculty.
Her dad, Christopher, accepted her diploma at the graduation ceremony, which was held in Might.
