What Does The Federal Indictment In The Anna Kepner Case Actually Tell You?

**Tony Brueski** (0:00)
This is Hidden Killers' half year in review. A look back at some of the most compelling cases of 2026 so far.
This is Hidden Killers Live with Tony Brueski and Robin Dre.

**Tony Brueski** (0:17)
The cruise ship murder, Anna Kepner's 16-year-old stem brother has been indicted as an adult on charges of first degree murder and aggravated S abuse. But it's what the defense did that nobody is talking about. Newly unsealed court records show the accused signed a written waiver requesting to be prosecuted as an adult, giving up the right to fight, the transfer or appeal it. His attorney co-signed it for a teenager now facing life in federal prison. That signature raises a question I think we deserve an answer to. Why would you volunteer for that?
Because it's the right thing to do? Is that what's going on here? There's a lot of questions I have about the levers that are being pulled in this case. Joining us to discuss, of course, my co-host, Rob Andreak, retired FBI special agency for the Counterintelligence Behavioral Analysis Program. And Eric Faddis is with us, defense attorney and former prosecutor. Eric, help us make sense of this. Most people here charged as an adult and assumed the prosecution forced it or the court said this is what we're going to be doing. But the court records show the kid signed a waiver asking to be tried as an adult and the defense team co-signed it.
Why on earth would a defense attorney let a 16-year-old facing life in prison volunteer for that? Or is this, did they really not have much of a choice in the matter when it came down to it?

**Eric Faddis** (1:48)
Tony, this is a real head scratcher. It's hard to envision what benefits a criminal defendant originally charged as a juvenile would receive if they voluntarily wanted to really escalate their case to being charged as an adult. The only thing that kind of comes to mind is perhaps they thought that the public defenders in the adult division may be more skilled, may be more experienced in homicide cases than the public defenders in the juvenile division, but you're also taking a tremendous risk in terms of sentencing exposure and a number of other items.

**Robin Drake** (2:25)
Eric, I'm curious, do you think, again, just going on the behavior side of things, do you think they, if they thought, because it looks like there's a lot of obviously very overwhelming evidence against this 16 year old, right?
If they thought that it was so overwhelming, and Bob said it the other day, too, Bob might say, you know, when it goes federal, you're screwed just because they're so thorough on everything they do. If defense thought this was so overwhelming that they're going to lose no matter what, if it goes to a jury, do you think they might be trying, again, it's a huge gamble. Do you think they might be trying to just appeal to some sympathy here that's saying, hey, is a 16 year old being tried as an adult, you know, give some leniency, give some plausible deniability, whatever. Do you think there's a possibility in there of that?

**Eric Faddis** (3:11)
Perhaps there is a sympathetic narrative there, but the thing is, Robin, if it got to a jury trial, I doubt the jury would ever hear that the defendant personally elected to change this case from a juvenile case to an adult case against him. So I don't think he would get any dividends at the trial phase. The judge would be aware of it. The judge is ultimately in control of sentencing. So perhaps that could be an angle, but overall rather puzzling.

**Robin Drake** (3:42)
I'm sorry Tony, I heard you about to go. Go ahead. So here he is. Let's go play forward assuming he's sentenced. Even if he pleads out, either way, is there any consideration for his age when put in a general population at a prison? Or is he just going to be in there with every sex offender and everyone else in the world for whatever?

**Eric Faddis** (4:07)
My understanding is that as a general rule, he will be treated just like any other adult offender. Now, if there are specific threats, if there are specific risks other than him just being younger, while incarcerated, I think the warden or whoever is in control facility has the authority to have protective custody to have measures in place to try to protect this young man should he be incarcerated. But generally speaking, he is probably just going to be in gen pop with all the rest of them and that's a precarious situation for a 16, 17, 18 year old.