Teen charged with killing stepsister on Carnival Cruise faces June trial in Miami

A Florida teenager charged with sexually assaulting and killing his 18-year-old stepsister on a Carnival Cruise ship will go to trial in over a month, a judge said this week in an order.

The teen’s trial on charges of first-degree murder and aggravated sexual abuse will start June 1 in Miami, U.S. District Judge Beth Bloom said in an order Monday.

The 16-year-old was initially charged as a juvenile before the case was transferred to adult court. He entered a written plea of not guilty last week. Minors are rarely prosecuted in federal court.

His stepsister, Anna Kepner, had been traveling on the Carnival Horizon ship in November with her family, including the teen. Before the ship was scheduled to return to Florida, her body was found concealed under a bed in a room she was sharing with the charged teen and another teen, a criminal complaint said.

The cause of Kepner’s Nov. 6 death was determined to be mechanical asphyxia, which is when an object or physical force stops someone from breathing.

Kepner’s father, Christopher Kepner, released a statement, saying the family was placing “trust in the justice system to pursue the truth with care and integrity.”

“The situation is deeply painful and complex for the entire family,” Kepner said.

Anna Kepner was a high school cheerleader at Temple Christian School in Titusville, Florida, about 40 miles east of Orlando. At her memorial service in November, family members encouraged people to wear bright colors instead of the traditional black “in honor of Anna’s bright and beautiful soul.”