An Indiana man and Anchorage woman pleaded guilty to conspiracy to produce child pornography.
According to court documents, Darin Schilmiller, 25, and Denali Brehmer, 22, conspired to murder Cynthia Hoffman on or about June 2, 2019, while Schilmiller was residing in Indiana. While they were conspiring to murder Hoffman, they also conspired to coerce a minor victim to produce sexually explicit images, which Brehmer took and sent to Schilmiller via text message.
Schilmiller and Brehmer’s sentencing hearings will be scheduled by the court at a later date. The defendants face a mandatory-minimum 15-year term of incarceration on the child pornography charges. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
“This case shows that our U.S. Attorney’s Office will continue to pursue justice on behalf of the victims of child pornography,” said U.S. Attorney S. Lane Tucker of the District of Alaska. “Our attorneys will prosecute offenders who are a danger to the children of our Alaskan communities.”
“In our pursuit of justice, Mr. Schilmiller and Ms. Brehmer now stand convicted for the multitude of crimes they’ve committed and the immeasurable trauma they’ve inflicted,” said Special Agent in Charge Antony Jung of the FBI Anchorage Field Office. “The FBI will aggressively continue to identify, investigate, and hold accountable those who exploit and abuse our most vulnerable.”
The FBI’s Anchorage Field Office and Anchorage Police Department investigated the case as part of the FBI’s Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Force.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Adam Alexander is prosecuting the case.