Anna Kepner: What the Judge Wrote in the Detention Order

**SPEAKER_1** (0:01)
This is Hidden Killers Live with Tony Brueski and Robin Drake.

**SPEAKER_2** (0:07)
One more case to talk about today, Timothy Hudson.
He is the young man who has been accused of taking the life of his stepsister, Anna Kepner. He walked free for months, 16 years old, charged as an adult now with killing his stepsister, Anna Kepner, on that Carnival cruise ship, and a federal judge said, ankle monitor, initially, go live with your uncle, go do some landscaping.
That has now changed. Same judge wrote a 14 page order calling Hudson a danger, that no curfew or monitor could contain, used the word psychopathy, and said he could snap at any time. Sealed evidence nobody has seen landed on the docket two days before that order, and there were reportedly warnings about Hudson's behavior toward Anna before the family ever stepped in from that ship. So there we are. Here's where we're at. He's now in custody.
Same judge doing the same stuff. Interesting. Joining me to discuss, we have Jennifer Coffindaffer, retired FBI Special Agent, and Robin Drake, retired FBI Special Agent, Chief of the Counterintelligence Behavioral Analysis Program. What changed? What do you think was in those docks that made him from being a lovely landscaper to he could snap at any time? I mean, this is a dramatic shift. I'm seeing here. Jen, your thoughts?

**SPEAKER_3** (1:27)
I think it's two things going on. First of all, this magistrate judge, federal magistrate judges see few cases like this. They don't see 16-year-olds almost ever in their career because the federal system does not handle juveniles. This was decided it would be handled federally, and this sort of case is so rare, so any judge hasn't seen it, and I think that's part of this. I really do in terms of his understanding of the wackadoodle nature of somebody that can do this, and what they did to Anna Kepner, combined with what is in that sealed information that was submitted by the prosecution office. I mean, come on.
All of us have been saying this. To me, how in the hell can you not think somebody that strangles somebody so hard that blood is coming out of their ears, and they're 16, and then they just throw them under the bed with life jackets, that this person is capable of doing that, or somebody else? So I can, but finally, they got through to the judge. Finally, they put enough details that he said, oh, yeah, maybe this is a problem.

**SPEAKER_4** (2:45)
Yeah, my guess is school records and documentation about inconsistent, chaotic violence and behavior, anger issues that were documented. So in order for them to have a reversal that fast, I would say a lot of people have been, when you're a kid and you're in school, there's a lot of behavior that's observed, whether it was documented or they had a lot of testimony by people around him in his life.
That to me is what probably did it.

**SPEAKER_2** (3:09)
Is that then really the fault of the DA or the prosecutors in this case, of not turning in complete work, if you will? It's like, okay, you have to write more than just a sentence here. When you're in grade school and it's like, we need to show your work. Is that what was going on here? They didn't show enough work to the judge to go, oh, this really is a dangerous human being.
Should they have gone on maybe a little bit stronger with examples of why he should be locked away initially, and not just assume the judge is going to look at the blatant evidence that says that, but maybe he needed the extra little shove?

**SPEAKER_3** (3:49)
Well, one of the things they talked about was actually, his interview, his psychology or his mental health evaluation. So I wonder what he said in that. I mean, does he talk about how he still fantasizes about others? He was in the house with other little girls. Hello. I'm just so glad this prosecution team said, all right, like you said, we got to show the work, we got to get everything or we're never going to convince this judge. And that's what they went to school and did, thankfully.

**SPEAKER_4** (4:24)
Yeah, it's guaranteed it was probably that. You know, this other abhorrent basket of genetic goo.
It was probably very easy to get all the evidence I needed from him because he can't help being who he is because he's so broken that every time you ask him a question, it just spurts out of that teenage mouth. And he just, he's good, good. So yeah, they had to do a little extra work because they didn't understand why the judge went just throw them behind bars because he's such a danger. But it wasn't hard to prove he was a danger, I don't think.