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

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

Caleb Leyland is the third person to be sentenced in the death of 19-year-old Cynthia Hoffman. Denali Brehmer and Darin Schilmiller were each sentenced to life in prison for the killing.

Leyland pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in November. Charges of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit first-degree murder were dismissed as part of a plea agreement. Prosecutors also agreed to not pursue unrelated charges of sexual abuse of a minor against Leyland, according to a sentencing memorandum filed by Assistant District Attorney Patrick McKay.

Brehmer, 18 at the time the murder occurred, was in an online relationship with Schilmiller, who posed as a handsome millionaire but was really a 21-year-old living in Indiana, according to charges in the case. Schilmiller told Brehmer he would pay her $9 million to kill someone and send him photos and videos of it, authorities have 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 has said.

Leyland helped plan the murder and let Brehmer borrow his car to carry out the act, the sentencing memorandum said. He was supposed to receive money after Hoffman was killed, it said.

McKay asked that Leyland be sentenced to 50 years in prison. His attorney, assistant public advocate Dina Marie Cale, requested he be sentenced to 25 years in prison. Anchorage Superior Court Judge Andrew Peterson on Friday sentenced Leyland to 30 years in prison.

Friday’s hearing was the first in the case without Hoffman’s father in the courtroom advocating for maximum sentences for any defendants. Timothy Hoffman died in June after a motorcycle crash during a memorial ride for his daughter on the fifth anniversary of her death.

McIntosh is the only defendant left to be sentenced. He pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in May and faces 30 to 85 years in prison. Peterson will determine his sentence in November.

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