Anchorage man sentenced to 30 years in prison for involvement in Thunderbird Falls murder

A 24-year-old man was sentenced to 30 years in prison on Friday for his role in a bizarre murder-for-hire plot in 2019.

Caleb Leyland is the third defendant in connection with the death of 19-year-old Cynthia Hoffman. Denali Brehmer and Darin Schilmiller were both sentenced to life in prison.

Leyland pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in November. Charges of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit first-degree murder were dropped as part of a plea agreement. Prosecutors also agreed not to file related sexual abuse of a minor charges against Leyland, according to a sentencing memo from Assistant District Attorney Patrick McKay.

Brehmer, who was 18 at the time of the murder, had an online relationship with Schilmiller, who posed as a handsome millionaire but was actually a 21-year-old from Indiana, according to the indictment. Schilmiller told Brehmer he would pay her $9 million if she killed someone and sent him photos and videos of it, authorities said.

Brehmer recruited four friends, including Leyland, Kayden McIntosh and two minors, to help her kill Hoffman at Thunderbird Falls in June 2019. Hoffman had a developmental disability and described Brehmer as her best friend, her family said.

Leyland helped plan the murder and lent Brehmer his car to carry out the crime, the verdict states. He was supposed to have received money after Hoffman's death, it says.

McKay asked for a prison sentence of 50 years for Leyland. His attorney, Assistant District Attorney Dina Marie Cale, asked for a prison sentence of 25 years. Anchorage Superior Court Judge Andrew Peterson sentenced Leyland to 30 years in prison on Friday.

Friday's hearing was the first in the case without Hoffman's father in the courtroom, who argued for maximum sentences for all defendants. Timothy Hoffman died in June after a motorcycle accident during a memorial ride for his daughter on the fifth anniversary of her death.

McIntosh is the only defendant yet to be sentenced. He pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in May and faces a prison sentence of 30 to 85 years. Peterson will decide his sentence in November.

Schilmiller was sentenced last week to 30 years in prison in a separate federal case for producing child pornography. He directed Brehmer to sexually abuse a minor and send him explicit images in the days after Hoffman's death, the indictment says. Brehmer was sentenced to 30 years in prison on the federal charges.