Cynthia Louise Wilder pleaded not guilty Tuesday to a charge that she helped plan the murder of her husband’s first wife and afterwards helped him clean it up.

Wilder, 26, is charged with criminal conspiracy to commit murder, a Class AA felony that carries a maximum sentence of life in prison without parole. The former Minot Public Schools teacher is also charged with helping her husband, Richie Edwin Wilder Jr., in his alleged attempt to escape from the Ward County Jail in August 2016. That is a Class C felony carrying a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a $10,000 fine. She also pleaded not guilty to that charge.

Richie Edwin Wilder Jr. was convicted last December of the brutal stabbing murder of his ex-wife, Angila Wilder, on Nov. 13, 2015. Richie Wilder Jr. was sentenced in May to life in prison without parole.

Minot Police Detective Krista Mattice testified Tuesday at a preliminary hearing for Cynthia Wilder that she confessed her role in the murder to a former romantic partner.

Mattice said that Cynthia Wilder first contacted the man on Facebook in December 2015, when her husband was arrested for the murder. She and the old friend had never had a formal dating relationship, according to Mattice, but rather a short term one of “convenience.” Cynthia Wilder has had intermittent contact on Facebook over the past year and a half with the man and made statements about the murder that concerned him. The man, whose name has not been revealed in court, first contacted the Minot Police Department in March 2017. In May 2017, he agreed to come to Minot and to meet with Cynthia Wilder. Police placed a recording device in the confidential informant’s car that captured some of his conversations with Cynthia Wilder and he also agreed to record some of his conversations with her on his cell phone.

Mattice testified that Cynthia Wilder told her old friend that the murder weapon was not supposed to be a knife. Richie Wilder Jr. had originally planned to use an untraceable gun, but the gun jammed and so he used the knife instead.

Cynthia Wilder reportedly told her old friend that she helped her husband plan the murder. She parked outside Angila Wilder’s house at midnight on certain nights and watched the comings and goings from the house. She told her friend that she found this exciting.

On the night of the murder, Cynthia Wilder knew that Richie Wilder Jr. was planning to kill his ex-wife when he left their apartment.

When he returned home, driving her Honda Pilot, Richie Wilder Jr. took a shower and Cynthia Wilder helped him clean up blood evidence in the car. Richie Wilder Jr. told his wife that “Angila had fought (and) that it got sloppy,” Mattice testified. While they were cleaning up, the two discussed how to get their stories straight for the authorities. Cynthia Wilder told her old friend that she stuck to the story they agreed to, but her husband didn’t. After they cleaned up, Richie Wilder Jr. and Cynthia Wilder had sexual relations. She went to sleep and he left to dispose of the bloody clothing and murder weapon. He put the incriminating items in a bag weighted down by a cinder block and tossed it into the river.

Mattice testified that Cynthia Wilder told her old friend she was proud of her husband for committing the murder and that “it needed to be done.”

Richie Wilder Jr. and his ex-wife Angila Wilder had a contentious relationship and they frequently argued over custody of their two children. He had previously been convicted of domestic violence against Angila Wilder.

Mattice testified that Cynthia Wilder visited her husband at the Ward County Jail and called him at the jail. The pair were aware that visits were recorded. Other inmates told police that Richie Wilder Jr. wrote messages on note paper which he held up to the glass for his wife to see. After the visits, he ripped up the paper and flushed them down the toilet in his cell. A camera that was supposed to be recording the visits did not always cover the entire visiting booth as it was supposed to. Richie Wilder Jr. is accused of trying to escape from the jail in August 2016. He is said to have used the metal piece from a broom head to chisel away the molding from a window in his cell. Court records show Wilder was caught on security footage disposing of the window molding pieces in his cell’s toilet.

Cynthia Wilder told her old friend that she had left a vehicle under the Third Street Viaduct for Richie Wilder Jr. to use after his escape from jail. She had also left a “burner cell phone” and clothing for her husband in the vehicle. Cynthia Wilder’s Honda Pilot was impounded by police during the summer of 2016, but friends had been lending her vehicles to use. Mattice testified that police don’t know what vehicle she left under the viaduct or how and when it was removed.

Mattice testified that Cynthia Wilder’s old friend, the confidential informant, has a burglary conviction on his record and had an outstanding warrant for unpaid restitution. The man turned himself in and resolved the warrant before he met with the police. Police reimbursed the man for the cost of his gas and the food that he paid for when he met with Cynthia Wilder on May 15 and again on May 17. To her knowledge, he did not receive any other compensation. She was not aware of any other occasions when he had served as a confidential informant for the Minot Police Department.

Cynthia Wilder’s lawyer, Patrick Waters, conceded that the state had met its burden for probable cause and made no further arguments. Cynthia Wilder then entered not guilty pleas before Judge Stacy Louser.

According to testimony at Richie Wilder Jr.’s murder trial in December, the two children that Richie Wilder Jr. shared with Angila Wilder, a now 12-year-old daughter and a now 6-year-old son, were staying in the apartment with their father and stepmother on the night of the murder. The toddler daughter of Richie Wilder Jr. and Cynthia Wilder was also present in the apartment.

Angila Wilder’s 2-year-old son with Chris Jackson was the only other person present in her home at 519 16th Street NW on the night of the murder. Richie Wilder Jr. murdered Angila Wilder and then apparently locked her bedroom door behind him. The 2-year-old was in another bedroom in the residence. Chris Jackson called police when he came home and discovered that the back door of his residence had been kicked in.

All of the children are living out of state with relatives.