The man, who pretended to be a millionaire offering serious money for video of a murder, was actually broke, had no job and lived in his grandparents’ basement.
A man accused of orchestrating the murder of an Anchorage, Alaska teen by pretending to be a millionaire has been sentenced to 99 years in prison.
25-year-old Darin Schilmiller of Indiana was handed his sentence on Thursday, after previously pleading guilty to Solicitation to Commit Murder in the First Degree in the 2019 murder of 19-year-old Cynthia Hoffman. During sentencing, Judge Peterson called the teen’s “assassination” both “extremely sad” and “shocking.” He also said he believed Schilmiller would “always be a risk to the community” and orchestrated the murder “for the mere thrill of it,” as well as “for power, for control, for your fetishes.”
Those fetishes, according to an FBI agent who testified in court, included child pornography, infants, raping and murder.
Hoffman was shot in the back of the head in June 2019, before her body was dumped in a river northeast of Anchorage.
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According to the Anchorage district attorney’s office, the murder plot began when Schilmiller met Denali Brehmer — then 18 — online. He said he was a millionaire named Tyler and offered to give her $9 million in exchange for evidence she killed someone. Schilmiller, however, was actually unemployed, broke and lived in his grandmother’s basement.
Brehmer then chose Hoffman as the victim, before recruiting four other friends to help her commit the heinous crime. Brehmer and Hoffman reportedly considered each other “best friends”; Brehmer, according to her family, was a “trusting young adult” with learning disability which reportedly “put her at a younger developmental age than her 19 years.”
Per authorities, the group then talked Brehmer into going on a hiking trip with them, before they bound her hands, feet and mouth with duct tape and shot her … all while sending photos and videos to Schilmiller.
According to Anchorage Daily News, police were put onto Brehmer’s trail after she posted concerning photos and videos to Snapchat and even told some people she was involved in the murder. She then led police to Hoffman’s body, while her phone led them to Schilmiller.
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On her phone, they found messages from Brehmer to Schilmiller, in which she was seen sexually assaulting minors. He later admitted to blackmailing Brehmer to commit the assaults after the murder. On top of the Solicitation to Commit Murder in the First Degree sentence, he’s also awaiting sentencing on federal charges for conspiracy to create child pornography.
Brehmer pleaded guilty to first-degree murder, while accomplice Caleb Leyland pleaded guilty to second-degree murder; both are awaiting sentencing. Kayden McIntosh, who’s also accused with participating in the murder, is still awaiting trial. The other two minor suspects haven’t been named.
“One down, five to go,” the victim’s father, Timothy Hoffman, told reporters after Schilmiller’s sentencing.
The judge said he hopes the lengthy sentence for Schilmiller would deter others from encouraging anyone to commit murder in the future. Schmiller will not be eligible for discretionary parole until he has served at least 45 years of his 99-year sentence.
