The Angila Wilder murder case ended with two life sentences: Richie Wilder Jr. was convicted in December 2016 of stabbing his pregnant ex-wife to death in her Minot, North Dakota home on November 13, 2015, and his wife Cynthia Wilder was later convicted of conspiracy to commit murder for helping him plan the killing. Both are serving life in prison without the possibility of parole. The motive, according to prosecutors and Cynthia’s own recorded statements, was a long-running custody dispute over Richie and Angila’s two children.
Who Angila Wilder Was
Angila Shannon Wilder was 30 years old when she was killed. Born September 30, 1985, in San Diego, she grew up in Alabama and earned a full Army nursing scholarship to Alabama State University.1Minot Daily News. Angila Shannon Wilder She was attending Minot State University and was close to becoming a registered nurse at the time of her death. She had three children — Alexandria, Nikolai, and Christopher — and was pregnant with a fourth.2Inforum. Book Dives Deeper Into 2015 Murder of Pregnant Minot Woman
Angila and Richie Wilder Jr. divorced in the spring of 2012.3Oxygen. Cynthia and Richie Wilder Murdered His Ex Angila for Custody Angila later returned to Alabama, reconnected with her high school sweetheart Christopher Jackson, and moved with him to Minot to continue nursing school. Their two-year-old son was in the home the night she was killed and was found unharmed.4Minot Daily News. Supreme Court Overturns Judge’s No-Contact Order for Murderer Richie Wilder Jr.
The Custody Fight That Led to the Plot
After the divorce, Angila and Richie fought constantly over their two children. Sgt. David Goodman described “constant fighting over the custody of the kids,” to the point that the two could no longer manage weekly custody exchanges.3Oxygen. Cynthia and Richie Wilder Murdered His Ex Angila for Custody They communicated mostly through email, and Angila repeatedly reported Richie to social services.5FindLaw. State v. Wilder
After a September 2013 custody hearing, Cynthia Wilder — Richie’s new wife — floated what became the seed of the plot. In a conversation later obtained by police, she asked Richie, “Wouldn’t it just be easier if Angila was no longer in our lives?”3Oxygen. Cynthia and Richie Wilder Murdered His Ex Angila for Custody Cynthia later admitted, on tape, that the murder had been in the works for roughly two years before it happened.
The Night of the Murder
On the night of November 12, 2015, Christopher Jackson dropped Angila off at work at 10 p.m. and left for his overnight shift at Walmart. He spoke with her by phone on his midnight and 2 a.m. breaks. She stopped answering after the 2 a.m. call.3Oxygen. Cynthia and Richie Wilder Murdered His Ex Angila for Custody
At some point in the early hours of November 13, Richie Wilder entered Angila’s home and stabbed her 44 times in her bedroom.6AP News. General News A medical examiner confirmed the stab count at trial.7KFYR-TV. Testimony: Richie Wilder Confesses to Murdering His Ex-Wife to Fellow Inmate When Jackson got home from work around 7 a.m., he found the back door kicked in and Angila’s body inside. He named her ex-husband as a suspect right away.3Oxygen. Cynthia and Richie Wilder Murdered His Ex Angila for Custody
How Investigators Built the Case
Police interviewed Richie the same day, after a Miranda warning. He admitted being at Angila’s home that night, then offered a story that kept changing. His first version had Jackson approaching him about a joint scheme to win custody, with the two of them going to the house to catch Angila cheating and Jackson doing the stabbing.5FindLaw. State v. Wilder Walmart surveillance footage placed Jackson at work throughout the murder window, and the story collapsed.3Oxygen. Cynthia and Richie Wilder Murdered His Ex Angila for Custody Richie later told an inmate named Paul Madriles that a “husky Native American” had done it, a claim he had never given to police. Prosecutors used the inconsistency to argue consciousness of guilt.
The forensic evidence was harder to talk around. Y-chromosomal DNA from under Angila’s fingernails matched Richie’s profile. Officers documented a scratch on his face the day of the murder; he told police Angila scratched him when he “checked her pulse,” and told others it came from play-wrestling with his child.5FindLaw. State v. Wilder Angila’s blood was found on the passenger door panel of Cynthia Wilder’s vehicle.3Oxygen. Cynthia and Richie Wilder Murdered His Ex Angila for Custody
About a year after the killing, a Ward County Jail inmate named Jeremiah Tallman told investigators that Richie had confessed. According to Tallman, Richie said he had “stabbed the hell” out of Angila, thrown his bloody clothes in a dumpster, and tossed the knife into a ditch. Deputy State’s Attorney Kelly Dillon said Tallman received no benefit for his testimony. He was in jail at the time on charges of abusing and terrorizing his wife, and had been acquitted of murder five years earlier — facts the defense knew going in.8Minot Daily News. Guilty as Charged
How Cynthia Wilder Was Caught
Cynthia’s role came to light through her own words. Starting in December 2015, she had been messaging on and off with an old romantic interest on Facebook.9Inforum. ND Woman Enters Plea to Helping Husband Plan Ex-Wife’s Murder Over roughly a year and a half, she made statements about the killing that alarmed him. In March 2017 he went to Minot police.10Minot Daily News. Alleged Murder Conspirator Says Children Need Her at Home
In May 2017, the man agreed to meet Cynthia in person twice while wearing a recording device supplied by police. On tape, she described staking out Angila’s home to learn when Jackson left for his overnight shift, watching Richie leave their apartment in black clothing and drive her Honda Pilot to the house, and helping him clean blood from the car afterward.10Minot Daily News. Alleged Murder Conspirator Says Children Need Her at Home She said the killing “was not supposed to be a stabbing” — the original plan had involved a gun.3Oxygen. Cynthia and Richie Wilder Murdered His Ex Angila for Custody On one recording she said flatly, “I could go to jail for a very long time because I helped him.”11KFYR-TV. Second Life Sentence in Angila Wilder Murder Case She was arrested shortly after the recorded meetings.
Convictions and Sentences
Richie Wilder Jr. was arrested in December 2015 and charged with murder as a Class AA felony.11KFYR-TV. Second Life Sentence in Angila Wilder Murder Case His trial was held in December 2016 in North Central District Court before Judge Gary Lee, with Ward County Deputy State’s Attorney Kelly Dillon prosecuting.12Inforum. ND Convicted Murderer Wants Contact With Children Jurors heard the DNA evidence, the Walmart footage disproving Richie’s attempt to pin the killing on Jackson, testimony about the scratch on his face, and Tallman’s account of the jailhouse confession. The jury convicted him.8Minot Daily News. Guilty as Charged In May 2017, Judge Lee sentenced him to life in prison without the possibility of parole.13Minot Daily News. Convicted Murderer Gets Life Sentence He was later transferred to the United States Penitentiary in Atwater, California.14KFYR-TV. Richie Wilder Jr. Transferred to California Federal Prison
Cynthia Wilder entered an Alford plea to conspiracy to commit murder in November 2017. An Alford plea lets a defendant concede that the prosecution has the evidence to convict without formally admitting guilt.11KFYR-TV. Second Life Sentence in Angila Wilder Murder Case On May 30, 2018, North Central District Judge Stacy Louser sentenced her to life without parole. The sentence went well past both sides’ recommendations: the defense had asked for 10 years, the prosecution for 20. Louser told Cynthia from the bench: “You were the one person who could’ve intervened… You were the one person who could’ve spared Angila Wilder’s life. You chose not to do so.”15KX News. Cynthia Wilder Sentenced to Life in Prison The judge cited the recordings showing that Cynthia had known Richie was leaving to commit the murder and had not intervened or called police.
The Overturned No-Contact Order
Richie appealed. On April 10, 2018, the North Dakota Supreme Court affirmed his murder conviction in State v. Wilder, rejecting his argument that a prosecutor’s reference to his post-arrest silence during closing warranted a new trial; the justices agreed the comment was improper but called it harmless error given the strength of the evidence.4Minot Daily News. Supreme Court Overturns Judge’s No-Contact Order for Murderer Richie Wilder Jr.
The court did strike down one part of the sentence. Judge Lee had barred Richie from any contact with his and Angila’s two children, then 12 and 6, who were living out of state with their maternal grandmother.16Minot Daily News. Convicted Murderer Richie Wilder Wants Contact With Kids The Supreme Court held that North Dakota’s sentencing statutes did not authorize a no-contact order as part of a criminal prison sentence, and that Marsy’s Law did not fill the gap because no one had formally invoked victims’ rights on the children’s behalf. The case was sent back so the district court could remove the no-contact provision.5FindLaw. State v. Wilder The murder conviction and life sentence stood.