Thomas Stein trial opens in Cape Coral murder case
Cape Coral defendant Thomas Roy Stein is on trial in Fort Myers on charges including second-degree murder with a firearm in the death of 15-year-old Kayla Rincon-Miller. He has pleaded not guilty to that count and to three counts of attempted robbery.
Prosecutors say Rincon-Miller was walking with two friends on March 17, 2024, after they saw a movie when a silver SUV drove toward them and blinded them with high beams. The case now turns on whether jurors accept that sequence of events and the witness accounts that followed.
March 17, 2024
Police said two men got out of the vehicle with guns and demanded the girls' bags. The surviving teens said they heard gunshots and then realized Rincon-Miller was lying on the ground.
Louann Dejaie said she saw Rincon-Miller collapse before hearing, “I just got shot.” Emma Grace Wright said an accomplice scolded Stein after the shooting, asking, “Why’d you shoot?” Those accounts place the shooting in the middle of a confrontation that began moments earlier on the street.
Rental SUV in Stein's name
Police said surveillance video showed the vehicle make a U-turn before the shooting and aim for the group. Investigators tracked the rental SUV to Stein's home, where it had been rented in his mother's name.
Stein told officers he learned of the investigation through Instagram and said he believed the homicide was a “setup.” He asked for an attorney and the interview ended, leaving the state to rely on the physical evidence, the video and the witnesses as the trial moves forward.
Christopher Horne Jr. plea
Christopher Horne Jr. pleaded no contest to second-degree murder and three counts of attempted robbery under a negotiated plea agreement. He will receive 25 years behind bars, and his sentencing is scheduled for May 19.
The agreement is tied to his cooperation with prosecutors in Stein's case, giving the state a cooperating witness while the jury weighs Stein's not-guilty plea. For Stein, the immediate question is whether the state can connect him to the SUV, the guns and the confrontation that ended with Rincon-Miller on the ground.
