An Alaska man will spend the most, if not all, of the remainder of his life in prison after he and others were duped into killing a lady by a man offered $9 million who was actually catfishing them and lived in his grandparents’ basement.
Kayden McIntosh, now 22, was sentenced to 85 years in jail on Friday, with 15 years suspended, which means he will serve 70 years. He was the final of six defendants jailed for transporting 19-year-old Cynthia Hoffman to a waterfall just north of Anchorage in 2019. McIntosh wrapped her with duct tape and shot her once in the head. Her body was dumped into a river.
“Mr. McIntosh, while not the ringleader or orchestrator, was an active participant in the planning and selection of Cynthia Hoffman to be murdered, and he was fully aware of the plan,” Anchorage Superior Court Judge Andrew Peterson stated during the sentencing, according to a courtroom report from the Anchorage Daily News. “There was no rash or spontaneous decision or action in this case by Mr. McIntosh, but rather a cold, calculated murder.”
McIntosh pleaded guilty last year to second-degree murder. The plea deal called for between 30 and 85 years. While Hoffman’s family had hoped for the greatest punishment, the sentence he received was adequate.
“He’s going to be an old man when he gets out,” Hoffman’s uncle Don Hoffman told the Daily News.
McIntosh’s lawyers reportedly sought a 30-year prison sentence, claiming he was a “lost kid” who surrounded himself with the wrong people. He apologized to Hoffman’s family.
“I know that doesn’t cut it,” he told the Daily News. “I do not expect you to forgive me. “I’m trying to accept responsibility for this.”
Darin Schilmiller, now 27, is the mastermind behind the plot. Prior to Hoffman’s killing in June 2019, Schilmiller posed online as a man named “Tyler” and offered $9 million to Denali Dakota Skye Brehmer — then 18 years old and allegedly Hoffman’s “best friend” — if she kidnapped and killed Hoffman and sent photographic proof. Schilmiller purported to be a wealthy man with dreams about witnessing a woman murdered.
However, “Tyler,” aka Schilmiller, was a penniless, unemployed Indiana citizen who lived in his grandparents’ basement. He pleaded guilty to one count of solicitation to commit first-degree murder, as well as a federal felony of conspiracy to make child pornography for requesting Brehmer for child sexual abuse material. A judge had previously sentenced him to 99 years in prison, with the chance of parole after 45.
Brehmer pleaded guilty to one count of first-degree murder. In February 2024, the judge condemned her to the maximum penalty of 99 years with no suspension.
Another defendant, Caleb Allen Russell Leyland, now 26, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in November 2024 and was sentenced to 40 years in jail, 10 of which were suspended. Two more defendants were processed through the juvenile courts.
Prosecutors allege that Leyland, tempted by the enticement of $500,000, gave Brehmer and the then-16-year-old McIntosh the automobile they used to deceive Hoffman into driving to the Matanuska-Susitna Borough in Chugiak on June 2, 2019, and then hiking through Thunderbird Falls. Brehmer bound Hoffman with duct tape while capturing photographic evidence for her alleged benefactor.
As previously reported by Law&Crime, investigators initially arrested McIntosh in connection with Hoffman’s killing. Police said he swiftly confessed to being one of Brehmer’s collaborators 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 stated in a probable cause affidavit after interviewing McIntosh. “Hoffman’s legs and wrists were restrained with duct tape. She also had grey duct tape covering her mouth. However, [Hoffman] began to panic. They pulled the duct tape off Hoffman’s mouth and hands. [Hoffman] began to tell them she was going to contact the police and report that they had kidnapped and sexually assaulted her.”
McIntosh claimed he “blacked out,” but remembered shooting Hoffman and throwing her into the river.
Prosecutors sought a maximum sentence of 75 years in jail with 25 years suspended for Leyland, but his defense requested 35 years with 10 suspended. At the sentencing, prosecutors stated that Leyland was just as guilty as his co-defendants.
“He gave that assistance, and he gave that assistance knowing what’s going to happen,” Assistant District Attorney Patrick McKay told NBC affiliate KTUU. “The court has already found this was a premeditated contract killing.”
In a bitter irony, Hoffman’s father perished in a motorbike accident on June 2, 2024, exactly five years after his daughter died. The family mourned both deaths.
“My niece’s life has been taken; her father followed five years later, on the same day, and laid down his bike,” her uncle Robert Hoffman told KTUU. “Now he’s with her, but he died from a broken heart. We are here to see this through. This is tragic. “No matter what role you play in a crime, you are just as accountable as the person who committed it the most.”
Leyland apologized to the Hoffman family, reportedly adding, “I can’t go back in time or change the past.” But I wish I had, since none of this would have occurred.”
