FORT MYERS, Fla. — All five suspects part of the murder investigation of Cape Coral teenager Kayla Rincon-Miller appeared in court on Thursday for two separate cases: the murder investigation and allegations of witness tampering.
Thomas Stein and Christopher Horne Jr. are accused of robbing three teens on March 17, 2024 and killing Rincon-Miller.
Watch what happened in court on Thursday:
Shanice Stewart (Horne Jr.'s mom), Varaka Stewart (Horne Jr.'s aunt) and Christopher Horne Sr. (Horne Jr.'s dad), are accused of witness tampering.
Police say they threatened the Stein family after the murder.
Varaka and Horne Sr. did not show up to court, because they were not obligated to, but the defense and State talked about forcing Varaka to give up her phone's password, which the judge will decide on August 19. Now, the same will happen to Horne Sr.
"I filed a motion to compel a passcode in the co-defendant's case and I do plan on having that filed by the end of the day for Mr. Horne's case," said Assistant State Attorney Sara Miller.
On Horne Sr.'s phone, Shanice previously claimed there's a recording of Stein's mother saying her son killed Rincon-Miller and got rid of the gun. Since then, the State's been trying to access the phone to see if that even exists.
Shanice was also in court, but her lawyer wasn't, so she's scheduled to come back on August 8 at 1 p.m.
Stein also appeared in court. Some of his family attended and sat in the audience with two security guards.
In court, the State said there's still a lot of work to do.
"There were probably 25 or more search warrants done in this case, so we're slowly getting back some of those records," Miller explained.
When Horne Jr. walked in, he waved to several family members in court.
As he walked out, his family yelled out "love you, Buster. Love you, Bubba." The judge had to ask for decorum in the courtroom several times.
Everyone is expected to be back in court on October 10 either for a pre-trial conference or a case management hearing.
