Cruise stepsister murder case: teen gets more time on plea, expert says no sweet deal

The defence in the federal murder case against a teenager accused of sexually assaulting and strangling his stepsister aboard a Carnival cruise ship has requested more time to consider reaching a plea deal, court filings reveal.

Timothy Hudson, who was 16 at the time, is accused of the sexual assault and strangling death of Anna Kepner, 18, aboard the Carnival Horizon on 7 November 2025. He is being charged as an adult in the federal case in Florida.

The plea deadline was originally Friday, 23 October, but that has now been extended to January to give the defence team more time. A judge granted this extension earlier this month.

A federal grand jury indicted Hudson in April, to which he initially entered a not guilty plea. He is currently being held in a federal pre-trial detention centre after a judge made an order in June remanding him to federal custody.

He was previously in the custody of his family, with an ankle monitor.

Criminal defence attorney and former prosecutor Anthony Strazza said: "For a case like this, you are talking about whether or not the defendant gets life or not." Strazza practices in federal and state courts and is not affiliated with the case.

He said Hudson's defence team could be negotiating a guilty plea in exchange for prosecutors not recommending life without parole. But he said: "There is not going to be any sweet plea deal, regardless of whether or not they take a plea. The numbers [years in prison] are going to be large."

Strazza said that because Hudson is so young, even if he is found guilty and sentenced to decades behind bars, there is a possibility he could serve his time and get out of jail in his 30s. He said there is a huge difference between life and, say, a 30-year sentence for a 16-year-old defendant, and that Hudson could be expected to serve at least 85 percent of any federal prison sentence.

Hudson's defence attorney, Eric Cohen, declined to comment on the case.