What Does the DNA Actually Prove in the Anna Kepner Cruise Ship Case?

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

**Tony Brueski** (0:08)
Let's go over to another case that continues to make more headlines. The unsealed transcript in the Anna Kepner case revealed that Anna had a consensual encounter with a second juvenile male aboard the Carnival Horizon before her death. The FBI obtained his DNA, tested it, excluded him. They say Timothy Hudson's DNA matched the odds at 120 sextillion to one. Which, by the way, the new Carnival ship, 100 sextillion people will be able to board it. It's going to be an amazing boat. I know we're all very excited. Wait for the midnight buffet on that one. 120 sextillion, I don't even know how many zeros that is. But when the defense presented the FBI agent on whether anyone could determine the person involved in the encounter was the same person who killed Anna, the answer apparently was no. The judge who heard all of it said he would not call the government's case strong, called it a much closer call.
Criminal defense attorney is here with us to help break it all down. Eric Faddis and what this all means heading into the September trial. You got a lot of different language, a lot of different people positioning things very specific ways for their own specific reasons. Again, with prosecutors confirming Anna had that consensual encounter with another juvenile on the ship, not Hudson, and the FBI excluding his DNA. The defense already signaling they're going to go down this road at the trial despite the one to 100 sextillion to one odds.
Good road to go down, Eric, or when you got nothing, make lemons out of lemonade.

**Eric Faddis** (1:45)
Great road to go down. This is a bomb cell development in the case from my perspective. Because so many people were like, hey, it couldn't have been anybody else. It had to be Timothy Hudson. No, it didn't. There are other people who have had very proximal contact with this decedent, and around the time where something horrible happened. Now, I understand that the DNA analysis, according to the government, tends to point in one direction.
But this tells me, I think a jury is going to see this and be like, how do you rule out that other dude?
I don't think that he has been ruled out, and even if there was some kind of physical interaction between Timothy Hudson and Anna Kepner, that's not the same thing as being guilty of murder.

**Todd** (2:34)
So I'm curious, Tony, I only saw the DNA stuff. Do we know, or Eric, do you know either, whether there's actually any video of the other person, the other male coming in and out of that room? Because that to me would be, yes, he, yeah, no, because to me, if the only video you have, but again, the defense, again, tell me if this is what the defense would attack, is maybe there's a lapsing video or something like that, but if the only video going in and out of the room is her, the other sibling and the stepbrother, and that's where she was found dead, that to me seems like irrefutable, or am I missing something?

**Eric Faddis** (3:09)
Well, I hear what you're saying, and certainly that there is some strength, some substantial strength to that evidence, but I don't know if card detectors on cruise ship doors can malfunction. I don't know if there is a lapse in some of the video surveillance. I'm just not sure. I just think there is some open questions, and this opens things up significantly more.

**Todd** (3:36)
Do you think that increases or decrease?
Before I keep going with that one, we were thinking about the higher probability of being a plea deal, just because him being tried and wanting to be tried as an adult, hoping that it helped along getting a plea deal instead of going to trial, to be more favorable, and also maybe the parents pressure in it that way. But that's a whole separate story, I know. But do you think this new evidence of DNA helps or hinder a potential plea deal for defense? If that's what they want to go.

**Eric Faddis** (4:05)
It increases the likelihood for sure, and it was already a significant likelihood, I think, due to his age and some other circumstances.

**Tony Brueski** (4:12)
The thing is, I mean, it creates more noise without a doubt, and reasonable doubt is what you're going for on the defense. Reasonable being the key word, can there be doubt there?
We're not litigating who had a relation with Anna Kepner. That's the thing. But I can guarantee is going to be, if this goes to trial, that's essentially what the defense is going to try and make the case about, even though that's not what the case is about. It's about who killed her. And the evidence, the camera clearly shows one person going in and out of that room, and that's Timothy Hudson, it's not this other person. And it's not whether she slept around on the boat or something like that, but it feels, and I hate this for this case, is that it's almost trying to go into some sort of character assassination of Anna Kepner for being 18 and sleeping with somebody, which is not a crime, everyone.