Why Did Anna Kepner's Accused Killer Walk Out Of Court FREE?

Added: 2026-05-31

[00:00:01]This is Hidden Killers Live with Tony Brussi and Robin Dink.

[00:00:08]Anna Kempner's accused killer walked into a federal courthouse this week and walked right back out. Timothy Hudson uh charged as an adult in theory and we'll get into that with firstdegree murder and aggravated s abuse in the death of his 18-year-old stepsister aboard the Carnival Horizon appeared before Judge Edwin Torres in Miami as prosecutors pushed to lock him up before his September trial. The government argued Hudson is a danger to others, that his alleged crimes are among the most serious ones a person can inflict on another. And that despite release conditions, saying he can't be alone with anyone under 18, surprise.

[00:00:54]Two minors are apparently living in his uncle's home where he's been placed for safekeeping since his mother has abandoned him completely and is sticking with Anna's dad. Uh, so somehow the solution is let's go put him with the uncle and two kids. The judge heard all of it. He acknowledged that if Hudson were 20 years old, he would have detained him. But because he's 16, he called this case a different animal. And then he let Hudson walk out of the courthouse anyway, saying he wanted to explore options for detaining him closer to his family before making a final call. to break down this big [ __ ] show uh and all of the insanity that's going on here. Eric Fattis is with us, defense attorney, former prosecutor. Eric, let's start with the 10,000 foot elephants in the room. Uh you have a a 16-year-old being tried as an adult who's waved his rights to be tried as a child. They he wanted to be tried as an adult. has questions there. But anyway, being tried as an adult, judge saying if he were 20, he'd be locked up, but he's free. And he's in a house with minors and he has the allegation of essaying and murdering his stepsister. And the judge is is waiting for more information on h what should we do here? What's the best course of action? Uh what the hell's going on?

[00:02:27]Uh what more info do you need? Uh if you had these allegations, he's presumed innocent, of course, but they're extremely serious. Uh they're not only homicidal, but there is a uh essay component to them as well. Uh as about as elevated as you can get and there's also um this sort of uh quasi incest piece on top of that that should give a judge very serious pause about uh whether the individual should be detained. The fact that he's 16 as opposed to 20. We're talking about a difference of four years there in the grand scheme of things. That's not a ton of time. That's not a tremendous difference. At least not one that would typically justify allowing somebody to be on the outside during a case like this. But lo and behold, uh that's what the judge said. How often do you have cases where it's kind of like piece meal together where he is a kid, he's 16, he's being tried as an adult, then why isn't everything going forward as if he were an adult? How often is it where well we're still going to kind of treat you like a kid over here on some of these things, but as an adult over here on this, we want to treat you. It It's like to me it should be all or nothing, but how often is it all or nothing when someone is going down the lane of what they're being tried as it it usually is all or nothing, Tony. don't get to kind of cherrypick like, oh, I really love these two aspects from this juvenile system, so I'm going to get those in my case, but then I I I I prefer these aspects of the adult system in other respects, and so I'm going to sort of put all these together and just get the best possible scenario for myself. That that's not at all how it works. If you're being tried in the adult system, the adult rules apply, um you are compared with other adult alleged offenders and and um to sort of, you know, say, "Oh, yeah, but but you know, we got to keep in mind he's also 16."

[00:04:23]That's a consideration. It is, but but it it's sort of odd the way that the court seems to be straddling these two very different justice systems, the juvenile and the adult.

[00:04:35]Eric, do you see this as potentially paying more attention to the rights of the accused as opposed to, you know, the rights of the victims in this? Because, you know, I I looked at the judge's background when you can't do anything with the accused and they made their choice.

[00:04:52]You can't really do much about it when it comes to detention. I was like, "All right, so let's look at this judge's background." And like many judges, he's very involved in community and education and he and he did and does mute courts uh with children and high schoolers. He just did one there. And so I I wonder if that gave him too much of a bias for the age because he even said it, the age of the of the accused, regardless of the acts, because when you look at the the acts he's accused of being released prior to trial with those kind of charges, it is so rare. We're talking like teens, I think, is when I did the research on this. And so, do you think that kind of bias came into play for him, >> Robin? So, the judges have the law and and and their job is to interpret and apply that law. And what comes in between those two events is the judge's philosophy. The law is kind of filtered through that philosophy and that can color the interpretation, that can color the application. And so, um, you know, certainly a judge's background and how they see things can affect how they're going to issue rulings on cases like this. And and and if this judge did have, uh, a philosophy that some might see as overly sympathetic to, uh, ensuring the rights of the accused, well, criminal defense attorneys are going to think that's great.

[00:06:13]Prosecutors, not so much. uh and and and uh wouldn't be uncommon for those sorts of considerations to creep in and and and find themselves in in a ruling such as this.

[00:06:24]>> Is this a judge who's practicing philosophy and not practicing law?

[00:06:29]>> Great question.

[00:06:31]>> Uh you know, there are more judges out there like that than you think, Tony.

[00:06:35]Yeah. Uh there are uh some judges who, you know, they have their own agendas.

[00:06:41]They have their own missions. And I'm not casting a spurs on this judge. I'm just talking generally.

[00:06:45]>> I am.

[00:06:46]>> But Aaron's not I am >> Tony can go ahead and do it. He's the host. But uh um you know and I think you've got to look out for that because it's easy to get in a position of power and then instead of having fidelity to the law, which is which is really that to which you're supposed to have fidelity, you sort of use the law as a tool to bring about outcomes that you think are right. Uh and and I I see that so often on the bench and it goes both ways.

[00:07:16]>> So what happens if Timothy the accused here has a recidivism and he actually does another assault on someone he or he breaks in the rules which he's he's living in the house with two underage people which he's not supposed to. I mean, so what kind of repercussions are there legally then against the person, the judge, or anyone else that allowed him to be out and he shouldn't have been out um because they're practicing philosophy and not law.

[00:07:43]>> It's a question that comes up a lot, Robin, where judges in other instances have released defendants and that was the wrong decision. They went on, those defendants went on to do monstrous things. Uh and so a lot of people are saying, "Hey, can we go back on the judge? Can we go back? Can we sue the government? Can we um you know is there some kind of legal mechanism some check some control against that and presently that there there often isn't >> crazy yeah I mean that's where you end up getting people practicing not law as well to uh to go after uh this sort of situation should Timothy go and do something horrible again little Timmy um the the insanity here is that I mean it's it's layer upon layer number one The argument is why is he free in general? Whether he's with his uncle or whoever, uh it seems kind of nuts with the charges and he's being tried as an adult. Add on top of that, by the way, judge, there's two minors living in the house that he's been placed in.

[00:08:47]That violates the agreement. And it's still like how the the the attorney even said like, what more do you need? What what more would it take to prove the danger? A second body is literally what was said in court. And the judge's like, "Well, I'm still going to I'm going to figure this out." Like, yeah, >> the family has reps of putting bad people together, and that's how this whole thing happened.

[00:09:08]>> It's all a bad I mean, it's just it's it's the whole family is just a cacophony of chaos.

[00:09:14]>> So, it's the is so again, whether something bad happens, god forbid, now or not is so again, we're going on the prosecution side, like the standard side. Is anyone liable civily? Can they be sued civily for doing something like this?

[00:09:29]>> That's an interesting thought.

[00:09:30]>> Typically not. Um, typically, uh, government actors are shielded with what's called qualified immunity, which basically says if you have a mistake, if you have an oops, you can't really be sued like that like a private person could. There are exceptions to that, but uh, >> can they sue the uncle now? What about the Can they sue the uncle now? I mean, he's put himself in jeopardy, isn't he?

[00:09:53]uh the uncle might be in a precarious position, but unless the uncle materially contributes to some civil or criminal wrong, uh we we we wouldn't be at that place yet.

[00:10:04]>> This is why it matters with who people vote for. Like cuz basically our system is this. If you're stupid enough to vote for this judge and get him on the bench to begin with, don't be complaining about any of the idiotic [ __ ] he does because he has car blanch to do basically whatever he wants and you can't go after him for it. That's why it matters. Like if it's my biggest thing is always like when people go and vote it's like oh you just fill in the blank.

[00:10:28]No, don't just fill in the blank. If you don't know what the hell you're voting for, just don't vote. Don't vote on that line because this is how you get people like this in power. And I don't care how bleeding hard and goodwill they are and oh let's up with people [ __ ] Um you're a [ __ ] judge. This is it's pretty clear as day who the hell this kid is and the decisions that he made.

[00:10:49]We can argue how he got there which I think should be argued. But this cart block let's just he can go free. There's more kids in the house. What could possibly go wrong? Judge G. I wonder >> just look at the research. Research says don't do this. That's you know that's that helps. That's helps. that helps shape law is research past events you know passes prologue with a lot of things you know and why would you gamble with someone's life on that so also then is so here's the again the world of conjecture and hypothesis is is there anything that can be done then to the uncle for breaking the conditions of the release >> well is he breaking it though I mean I'm assuming they went into this knowing I mean it wasn't they >> and Eric aren't we >> well I don't think I mean I don't think the uncle went into this like surprised and I have children. I think everybody knew he had kids and they all said, "This is a great idea. Let's put little Timmy rapist here with the kids allegedly and what could possibly go wrong?" I mean, this seems like a great choice for all of us.

[00:11:49]>> Yeah. And and and I think the uncle is sort of probably caught in a pretty crummy situation where he's like, "Oh, you want me to go like step up and try to help my nephew?" Okay, I'll >> do what? Right.

[00:12:01]>> I wonder how that conversation went. You know, you know, >> I really was it like, "Uh, hey, yeah.

[00:12:07]Uh, by the way, can you watch Timmy for a week? We got some stuff going on." Oh, yeah. Timmy can come on over here. Oh, by the way, he killed the stepsister and sater and covered her up in life jackets. Hey, see you later. I I bet you can help out your uncle with the landscaping business.

[00:12:23]>> Bye.

[00:12:25]>> Oh my god.

[00:12:26]>> You know, it's like what? I mean, it's like whoa. Oh, >> it's stupid whack-a-ole, man. Well, it well, the thing is it's so disheartening because you have a family like this that clearly operates with the baseline of chaos and you're hoping that that when the law gets involved after something horrific inevitably happens with one of the people in this circle that the law would make a little bit of sense. Nope.

[00:12:55]>> Nope.

[00:12:55]>> You know, and and I don't understand the judge's argument. Like, it sounded decent on the surface. And Eric, tell tell me if there's other ways to do this.

[00:13:03]>> You know, they said that the system is not really equipped for a 16-year-old who is um being tried as an adult. And so that's why they said it's better for him to be released. Again, I'm paraphrasing what the judge what the ruling here is why he's released. But why couldn't you put him on isolation? I mean I mean dely him, right?

[00:13:19]>> Seem to do to a lot of other people, >> right?

[00:13:22]>> Yeah. There are arrangements that can be made. And Robin, to your point, you know, sending this kid back into a family dynamic that reportedly uh had some problems and and and may have even somehow contributed to to everything that went down. You know, putting the kid back within that environment and you know, I know it wasn't the uncle who was directly involved, but gosh, things haven't gone so well uh just just letting this kid to their to their own family devices. So, uh you know, there there is protective custody. Um, there are other facilities to which that this this gentleman could be sent uh that might be more protective, less risky.

[00:13:58]There are options there. Uh, I just think the judge didn't want to look at him.

[00:14:04]>> Yeah, maybe we could it could be a sitcom and and we could put little Timmy in with the judge. Timmy and the Judge Fridays on ABC. It's the with the relaunch of TGIF. What happens when you mix a federal judge with a stray teen who murders his stepsister on a cruise ship? It's a Friday night of comedy, you know. I mean, that's, you know, >> it's a new episode of Different Strokes, right? Little like, yeah, cameos from like people from other shows. I think it could be great. You know, >> Neil Patrick Harris.

[00:14:37]>> Yeah. Like, what's Uncle Jesse? Why are you here? What's going on? It'd be it'd be interesting. Um, >> Tony's creative brain's going, man.

[00:14:46]>> Your thoughts in the comments section on Substack and YouTube. Uh, links are are in the description.

[00:14:52]>> Spark Fry, Timmy the Rapist comes over on the next episode.

[00:14:58]>> I mean, if if they're going to handle it with the with kid gloves, then okay, I guess let's treat it like kid gloves and and, you know, make it what it is, cuz this is utterly utterly insane. Want more on this case and others? Then press subscribe now and don't miss a moment of true crime coverage from Tony Brusski and the Hidden Killers podcast.