Darin Mitchell Schilmiller (Alaska Dept. of Law) and Cynthia Hoffman (Anchorage PD)
A 25-year-old Indiana man will spend more than four decades behind bars for pretending to be a millionaire and catfishing a teenager in Alaska, convincing her to kidnap and kill one of her friends for millions of dollars that he did not have and never intended to pay.
Anchorage Superior Court Judge Andrew Peterson on Thursday ordered Darin Mitchell Schilmiller to serve the maximum sentence of 99 years in a state correctional facility for the 2019 slaying of 18-year-old Cynthia Hoffman.
Schilmiller, who was broke, unemployed, and living in his grandparents’ basement when he posed as a handsome millionaire online, previously pleaded guilty to one count of solicitation to commit murder in the first degree. He faced between 15 and 99 years in prison. He will not be eligible for parole until he completes a minimum of 45 years of his sentence.
According to a news release from the Alaska Department of Law, the evidence presented at Schilmiller’s sentencing hearing showed that Hoffman was shot and killed by then-18-year-old Denali Brehmer on June 2, 2019. Brehmer then tossed the victim’s body into the Eklutna River.
As previously reported by Law&Crime, investigators ultimately discovered that Schilmiller had posed as a multimillionaire named “Tyler” online, catfishing Brehmer and promising to pay her $9 million to kidnap and kill Hoffman, while simultaneously providing him with photographic evidence documenting all her criminal activity.
Hoffman, who was developmentally disabled, considered Brehmer, who is now 23, to be her “best friend.”
Tantalized by the promise of money, Brehmer admittedly tricked Hoffman into going on a hike through Thunderbird Falls after a trip to the Matanuska-Susitna Borough in Chugiak, Alaska, just north of Anchorage. There, Brehmer bound Hoffman with duct tape and shot her in the head — all the while taking photographic proof for her perceived benefactor.
During the three-day sentencing hearing, Judge Peterson said the case was “shocking,” describing it as “premeditated murder-for-hire” that ended with the “assassination” of Hoffman.
Judge Peterson found that Schilmiller’s conduct was “among the most serious” solicitation to commit first-degree murder cases and contract killing cases he’d ever come across. He further deemed Schilmiller a “worst offender” for purposes of sentencing, reasoning that his conduct in this case cemented the fact that he would “always be a risk to the community.”
“This was intentional, premeditated murder for hire,” Peterson said. “You plotted with other co-defendants to kill somebody you never met for no reason other than the sheer thrill of controlling others and seeing it be done.”
The judge added that Schilmiller intentionally caused Hoffman’s death “for power, for control, for your fetishes,” Anchorage Daily News reported.
Schilmiller also pleaded guilty to federal charges of conspiracy to create child pornography. He is awaiting sentencing on that charge.
Authorities first arrested a then-16-year-old Kayden McIntosh in connection with Hoffman’s death. Police said he quickly confessed to being one of Brehmer’s accomplices in the murder — but insisted Brehmer brought the gun.
“[T]he three of them agreed to duct tape each other and take photographs,” Anchorage Police wrote in a probable cause affidavit following their interview with McIntosh. “(Hoffman) was bound by her ankles and wrists with duct tape. She also had grey duct tape placed over her mouth. However, (Hoffman) started to panic. They removed the duct tape from (Hoffman’s) mouth and hands. (Hoffman) began to tell them she was going to call the police and tell them they had kidnapped her and sexually assaulted her.”
McIntosh allegedly claimed he “blacked out,” but remembered shooting Hoffman and tossing her in the river. The case against him is still pending trial.
Brehmer in February pleaded guilty to one count of first-degree murder in Hoffman’s death. In exchange for pleading guilty, prosecutors agreed to drop charges of conspiracy to commit murder in the first degree, solicitation of murder in the first degree, tampering with physical evidence, and two charges of murder in the second degree. The admission did not come with any agreement about Brehmer’s potential sentence.
She is scheduled to appear for her formal sentencing hearing on Feb. 12 where she faces a minimum sentence of 30 years and a maximum sentence of 99 years.
Another accomplice, Caleb Leyland, pleaded guilty to murder and will be sentenced on June 10. Two other alleged accomplices have not been identified publicly and are currently in the juvenile justice system.
Colin Kalmbacher contributed to this report.
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