FORT MYERS, Fla. (Court TV) — A teenager accused of killing a 15-year-old girl during an attempted robbery took the stand in his own defense, vehemently denying the prosecution’s accusations that he pulled the trigger.
Thomas Stein testifies in court on May 1, 2026. (Court TV)
Thomas Stein, 18, has pleaded not guilty to charges of first-degree murder with a firearm and three counts of attempted robbery.
Prosecutors have said that Stein and his co-defendant, Christopher Horne Jr., were together in a car on March 17, 2024, when they targeted three girls walking down the street. What started as an attempted robbery turned deadly when a single gunshot went off and Kayla Rincon-Miller was killed.
Stein testified that he had only met Horne, whom he also referred to as “Buster,” a couple of times before the two had gone out on March 17. After Stein spent the day with his family, he picked up Horne using his mother’s rental car and the two began driving around. Horne previously testified that Stein had wanted to break into cars, which he called “car hopping.” Stein agreed that was the plan, but said that it was Horne who proposed the activity. “I was just driving around there to see if there’s anybody I knew to try to find something to do,” Stein said. “But that’s when Horne kind of suggested the idea to go car hopping and he kind of tells me this story how he hit a car in the parking lot and found some weed and everything. So I was like, ‘OK,’ but I was like, I don’t think this is a good spot though, just cause there’s so many people out there and it’s like, light, cameras, people — it’s a parking lot.”
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After driving around for some time, Stein said that Horne asked if his friends could join them. Stein agreed and said he picked up the friends, known only as “JD” and “Trey,” outside of a church. “It was kind of weird for me, because, I don’t know, it feels like I didn’t really fit in with them,” Stein said. “Like, their demeanor was a lot different than me.” Stein’s attorney suggested the two friends were “thuggish,” to which Stein agreed.
Stein said that the four teens were driving when they saw Rincon-Miller and her two friends walking down the street. “We’re all just kind of looking at them, we’re checking them out,” he said. Stein said that JD said he recognized one of the girls and asked him to turn the vehicle around.
“I’m thinking in my head, I’m thinking we’re gonna roll out, they’re gonna roll down the windows,” Stein testified. “But as I’m pulling up, JD or someone in the backseat, they cracked the door…so I’m like, OK I guess they’re gonna get out of the vehicle.”
Stein said he slowed the car down, but was shocked by what happened next. “I’m kind of expecting JD to, like, say something. And as he’s getting out of the vehicle, I noticed — when I first seen him I noticed he had what I thought at the time, it was a do-rag, but it turns out to be a ski mask. He pulls the ski mask down, and I’m just looking at him. He pulls the firearm out, runs up and then they’re trying to rob these girls.”
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The two surviving victims who were with Rincon-Miller, Emma Wright and Louann Dejaie, previously testified that it seemed like a group of men got out of the car and attacked them. Both Wright and Dejaie described three to four people getting out of the car and trying to steal their bags before a gunshot went off. Stein said that Horne targeted Wright, Trey targeted Dejaie and JD went directly for Rincon-Miller.
“Everybody was kind of, like, struggling, and out of the three of them, I kind of noticed Kayla and JD, they’re kind of almost in an altercation, they’re fighting,” Stein said. “So at this point, I run up to separate them and like, before I can even get up, the gun had gone off.”
Stein said he was “shocked” and dove back into the car with the other attackers as the girls tended to their friend. Once in the car, he said, JD began to panic. “He starts saying something about the shell casing,” Stein said. “He tells me to drive back. He tells me to drive back to the scene and at this time I’m already like four minutes away, so I’m like, ‘No, that’s not a good idea.'”
Once back at his home, Stein said that Trey and JD left; Stein’s mother drove Horne home that evening.
Prosecutors have maintained there were only two people who attacked the group of girls: Stein and Horne. No other charges have been filed and no other arrests have been made. Horne testified that there were no other people in the car and pointed to Stein as the gunman.
Horne pleaded guilty as part of an agreement with the prosecution; he was sentenced to 25 years in prison.
