{"id":193449,"date":"2026-03-16T13:26:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-16T13:26:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/193449\/"},"modified":"2026-03-16T13:26:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T13:26:07","slug":"teen-accused-of-involvement-in-murder-to-appear-in-court-lee-county","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/193449\/","title":{"rendered":"Teen accused of involvement in murder to appear in court | Lee County"},"content":{"rendered":"

CAPE CORAL, Fla. (WINK)\u2014 One of the teens accused in the murder of 15-year-old Kayla Rincon-Miller is set to appear before a judge for a motion hearing.<\/p>\n

Thomas Stein was 16 years old at the time of Rincon-Miller’s murder in March 2024<\/a>. The Cape Coral teen was shot and killed while walking to a McDonald’s with her friends.<\/p>\n

Stein is expected back in court for pre-trial motions, where the judge could decide what evidence and testimony jurors will eventually hear when the case goes to trial.<\/p>\n

Although investigators say he may not have been the actual shooter<\/a>, he is being charged as an adult with first-degree murder and three counts of attempted robbery with a firearm.<\/p>\n

\"Kayla<\/p>\n

Kayla Rincon-Miller. CREDIT: Rincon-Miller family<\/p>\n

By Matias Abril<\/p>\n

As the legal process continues, Rincon-Miller’s family is working to honor her memory. Over the weekend, WINK News spoke with Rincon-Miller’s mother and sister for the first time at a gun violence rally organized by Southwest Florida Crime Stoppers and Kayla’s House, a nonprofit created by her loved ones.<\/p>\n

“I just want her to be remembered as like a beacon of light, and hope that it wasn’t she was lost just for good, that you can turn a loss into something beautiful,” Rincon-Miller’s sister, Tatiyana, said.<\/p>\n

The hearing could shape what jurors ultimately hear when this case goes to trial on April 27.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CAPE CORAL, Fla. (WINK)\u2014 One of the teens accused in the murder of 15-year-old Kayla Rincon-Miller is set…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":193450,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[209,211,210,68667,61399,1521],"class_list":["post-193449","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral-headlines","tag-cape-coral-news","tag-kayla-rincon-miller","tag-mcdonald","tag-southwest-florida"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193449","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=193449"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193449\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/193450"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=193449"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=193449"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=193449"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}