Supreme Court upholds Wilder murder conviction, rules against sentencing

The North Dakota Supreme Court has upheld the conviction of an Alabama man charged with killing his ex-wife in Minot in 2015, but ordered the lower courts to amend part of his sentence that prevents him from having contact with the children he fathered with her.

A jury convicted 32-year-old Richie Wilder, Jr., in December of 2016 of murdering his ex-wife Angila Wilder in her northwest Minot home. The following May, Judge Gary Lee sentenced Wilder to life in prison without parole, and also barred him from ever having contact with the two children he fathered with Angila, citing the brutality of the crime.

Last September, the judge amended the no-contact order to expire when the children become adults, at the request of Wilder’s attorneys.

The Supreme Court upheld his conviction, but ruled the courts did not have the right to impose the no-contact order because there was no request for enforcement of the children’s rights.

Richie Wilder remains in custody in a penitentiary in California, according to online records.

Richie’s current wife Cynthia Wilder awaits her sentencing in Minot after pleading out to helping Richie plan the killing, along with a botched attempt to break him out of county jail.

She will be sentenced next month.