Soldier’s Wife Killed with Her Own AR-15 Rifle

- I'm a bad man, I'm a bad person. - They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but picture perfect isn't always what it seems. - Be a professional soldier and tell me right now what the (beep) happened. - In this story, the only words you need to hear are the ones that come straight from the suspects mouth. - I'm innocent, I didn't mean to hurt anybody. (siren blaring) - The penalty is death. - Yeah! - It's a family out here. - Why am I? - I will have my attorney call you. - No, I believe we'll call. - 17 year old Danielle Ripian has been searching for love in all the wrong guys, as teenage girls often do. From a young age Danielle's life has been marked by tragedy. She lost her mother and grandmother at a young age and spent her childhood moving from home to home. The most stable part of her life, cheer. At five feet tall and 100 pounds, she's a master of mid-air stunts, making her the perfect flyer. But for as much time as she spends in the air, Danielle longs to land in the arms of someone she can count on to stick around, someone safe. In October 2011, she meets someone she hopes could be that person. 18 year old Skyler Nemitz. Skyler is older. He's already graduated high school and moved on to the army. The two begin dating and after just three months, Skyler proposes. Despite nearly everyone in Danielle's life urging her to slow down, she says yes. By March 2012, just five months after meeting Skyler, Danielle leaves behind her friends and cheerleading what had once been her only constant for her new life as a wife. But it would only last about two years before the unthinkable happens. A tragic accident no one saw coming, except maybe her husband. We got to figure out exactly where you were standing with the bullet struck your wife. Why did all those things? It's not all adding up to the physical evidence right now. The person's directorate will kind of story like this would add up. On October 16, 2014, now 20 year old Skyler Nemitz returns home to his wife after three weeks away at battlefield training. He celebrates his homecoming with a glass of fireball and red bull. I don't really drink that much at all, like amber. And she had me some cinnamon. I literally had like a little, it was like probably like glass like that big room, like that tall ceiling with like a really dreamy glass. It was probably like that much and I poured the rest, filled the rest of the red bull because I was really tired. I didn't want to go see it because I want to talk to you so much. I remember I drank that and that's all I drink. So you've been gone since the 27th, so about three weeks. You guys can see each other for three weeks and you sit down and eat some pizza and have a little shot and then she gets on a computer and does some work. Yeah. That feels like a way for me to show up for three weeks. Yeah, I told her, yeah, you go ahead and work because when she, I told her I work an hour a day because she is paid for that. So I was like, yeah, go ahead and work for an hour to help me watch this movie. I'm gonna hang out with my ham dog. I got a ham dog that I'm absolutely like best. I'm really a team. Danielle is working in the office while Skyler watches a movie in the living room. At some point Danielle leaves the office to go into the bedroom where she's been keeping the custom AR-15 Skyler gave her for her 19th birthday. So when you walk in the front door, there's this spare bedroom that has the computer in it and there's the other bedroom that has just our Kelley King bed in there. She keeps it in the closet on her side hidden somewhere when I was gone. She put it in there. I don't know. She's saying they're on her side of the closet. And then you went and got it and brought it into the computer room. No, she brought it into the computer room. You saw her? Yeah, like 30 minutes before. She brought it into the computer room. I was like, hey, can you just put this away? How many firearms do you have to hold now? They're not all mine. Well, how many? Just I'm just curious as to how many I have there. Even if they're not yours, how many firearms are in the apartment? 14. 14. Skyler grew up around guns and is considered by many to be an enthusiast. He has an array of assault rifles, hunting rifles, handguns and shotguns. He's received military training in the use of rifles and he's knowledgeable about how to store them. Skyler says he abides by his mom's rule. Always unloaded, always in a safe. So are they all lacking a safe one? Yeah, they're always like, I would tell you say if they're always like, keep the ammo separate. He usually abides by the rule. But on October 16th, he doesn't. She took it from the bedroom, put it in on, there's a bleed blanket on the spare bedroom or the computer is on the spare bedroom bed. She put it on there and she said, hey, can you put this away? OK. I didn't think much of it. I said, yeah, and then not till 30 minutes later, I was like, oh, OK, we shouldn't need a arm. I'm going to go put it away. That's when Skyler walks back into the office, picks up the AR-15 and shoots his wife in the back of the head at close range. The bullet enters the back of her skull, exits through her face and penetrates the computer screen in front of her. Skyler doesn't call the police, but he does put Danielle's rifle back in the closet. Meanwhile, a neighbor dials 911 after hearing a gunshot and screaming from inside Skyler's apartment. Police arrive on scene to find Danielle's head, slumped over her right shoulder. Her work notes written just minutes before lay on the desk in front of her, blood pools on the floor beneath her. They immediately handcuff Skyler and escort him into the back of a squad car. He doesn't know it yet, but his backseat behavior will become infamous among armchair detectives, behavioral analysts, and homicide investigators. I'm a bad person, I'm so bad, my mom, I'm bad, I'm so disappointed in me. According to Skyler, he didn't mean to kill his wife. This was all just a big misunderstanding. The police aren't so sure. Skyler is no stranger to owning and operating firearms. In fact, his military training makes him a professional. He even taught Danielle how to shoot and enjoyed taking her to the range. That's why he bought her the AR-15 for her birthday. He even customized it with her favorite color, blue. The rifle was supposed to be for fun and for protection. Because recently in our apartment complex, I feel like it's really gyro, and I'm not a racist person. I'm just saying that it's kind of gyro, and I don't want anything to happen to my wife. I'm not worried about her doing things with you. I'm worried about other people doing things that hurt you. I was just worried about her. I think that was my main thing, and I think that's why I miss her a lot. I was just so worried about her. The idea that Skyler, a gun fanatic with two years of Army training and experience, would have made a mistake firing such a powerful weapon within feet of his wife is hard for investigators to wrap their heads around. I know you're upset, I've been doing this job long and even alive, so I mean I get that, but you've changed your story twice since we've been sitting right here. I just want to make sure my son-- I'm not lying about anything else. I'm not saying Skyler Yarm. It could be the fact that you're upset, but one thing you have to do is before you start talking, is listen up a little bit, okay? Were you directly behind her? I was directly behind her, and it was just, I was directly behind her. I can't have been in the room, I was like, oh, you're so cute, and I know that the rifle was about to clear it in. It goes off, and I didn't even know the thing. I mean, I've never had a needle to just charge every on ranges, never, like, and I'm pretty lost around, I was spinning, I didn't. I took the rifle, and the rifle was still on my hands. And I looked at the rifle and I was like, "What the fuck?" And I looked at it and there was no magazine in it. And I was like, "Oh, obviously, there's around the chamber. I mean, that's an obvious [bleep] thought. So I go to the bedroom, I go to the other bedroom because I see what just [bleep] happened. And I just take the rifle and I throw it in the closet into the our bedroom closet. - Based on blood evidence throughout the home, it appears Schuyler went downstairs into the kitchen after the shooting. Blood on the walls in the dining room indicates that Schuyler might have peered out the back door or even walked outside. What he didn't do is call for help. - I know what to do, like. - Did you call him? - I couldn't run away. - No, but I wouldn't have happened literally within right after it happened, like, there was smoke in the air. And my neighbor, I think he's in the military also. He knocked me door to me. He must have said that for maybe a couple of seconds because I was just so, like, I didn't know what the [bleep] just happened. He said, I think he said, "I heard gunshot." And I thought, "Okay, what's going on?" And I told him, "No, it's not okay." I said, "No, it's not okay." I think my wife, I said my wife's heard. And he said, "Is she okay?" And I said, "No, I think she's, I think she's gone." I think she's gone. Because when I saw her, she was, her body was, she wasn't moving. She wasn't moving. I called her name, like, at least 20 times. And she did not move. And I went, I went and grabbed her and I tried to hug her. But that can't be true. If Skyler tried to hug Danielle or grab her in any way, he surely would have more blood on him. The amount of blood on the floor and the arm of the chair Danielle was sitting in confirms that. There is a small amount of what appears to be blood spatter on his shirt. His face, arms, and hands. Parts of his body that would have likely come in contact with blood had he hugged Danielle. We're clean. - I tried to hug her and I was saying her name and I think nothing happened. I remember I grabbed her and I put her face in my nose and I said, "Deniel, Danielle, Danielle." Danielle and I don't know what, I wouldn't cry. - I remember I just saw it to myself from such a bad person. I'm such a bad person, I don't lie even crying. I was just saying to myself, "I'm evil, I'm evil." - Skyler's focus on his own reaction, rather than to Danielle's death strikes investigators as strange. For someone who's repeated over and over that he loves his wife, his behavior is about as suspicious as the physical evidence. - And his strange behavior began before he ever arrived at the station. - Why me, I love my wife so much. Why me, I love my wife and my wife, but my dogs, I love everything. I love my wife so much, she's everything. Hey, hey. - Oh my God, take this up there. Hey, I didn't know about my wife. I didn't know about my wife, okay? We'll fill you in and the more we know, okay? - But suspicious behavior alone isn't enough to determine the shooting wasn't accidental like Skyler claims. Crime scene technicians, forensic experts, and firearms examiners evaluate the evidence and find that Skyler's story isn't adding up. - When your story doesn't make sense and you hear it for the second time and we bring something up, you change the story. - Starting with one of the very first details he gives investigators that he was watching a movie before going into the office to get Danielle's rifle. - Okay, was there anybody yelling inside before the gunshot happened? - No, no, no, no. - Was the TV up loud because there was some, you know, yeah, the movie, I was on AMC, I was watching G.I.J., that was loud, I had that probably on like 40 of the volume and while that was, it's probably still burning right now and I'm gonna. - But when crime scene technicians begin photographing the apartment, the movie wasn't on and the TV wasn't on AMC like Skyler said it would be. It was on Fox News. There's little evidence that Skyler or Danielle spent any time in the living room. There's no food or drink where Skyler says he was eating pizza, no plates, napkins or cups either and blankets are folded on one of the couches. The only things out of place appear to be Danielle's wallet and its contents and a piece of scrap paper with a few names written on it, possibly for Danielle's work. Investigators rely on forensics to learn the truth about what happened to Danielle and the tests just aren't supporting Skyler's version of events, especially when they consider the way he says he was holding the rifle when it went off. - So I remember, I remember how it went off, I hid on myself. - Mm-hmm. - Has she figured out a trick? - No, I can't remember if it was or not. I don't think it was. - You don't think it was 'cause you don't want it to be or because of the fact? - I don't want it to be, but it might have been. - It might have been, even though I wanted to be. - I f***ed up. - District directory of that round doesn't match up from the entrance to the exit wound, doesn't add up to what he told us. Okay, so I want to make sure what it says is it doesn't add up to what you told us. So what I want you to do is make sure you're telling me the right thing. If you saw that, you're gonna do, man. You got gunfars or you can build a nail. - When I round off, I thought it was on my thought, I think it might have even been on my breast or my shoulder, I don't know. I remember that round one. I know, don't, give me that look, it makes me anxious. - We gotta sit there, and we gotta make sure, so we've gone through a couple different things. 'Cause I don't have thigh, there's a new chest, now might have been on your shoulder or your finger was on the trigger. And you and I both know, guns don't go off unless your fingers wear. - No, I'm told, yes. - Right, right. He's got something's gotta pull that trigger to make that guy go off, right? - No, I don't, I mean, I've heard it, I've heard it, and it forced me off, and if you hit the stock, - If you hit the stock, pretty hard. - I've heard it, I've gone off. - It'd have to be something harder than a thigh. - It'd have to be hard, round, concrete, right? It wouldn't just go off from me and slam down your shoulder, right? - I don't know, I'm just-- - Take a second. - What do you about the apple, all I drink? - This doesn't mean for a second. - I want you to focus on this, 'cause when I start talking about something, you want to change the subject, okay? So I want you to think about this, okay? And think really hard, was the gun on your shoulder and was your finger on the trigger well? Did you pull it up here and you were going like this? - I was not aiming down the sights, I know-- - Well, no, I'm not seeing your aim in it. You know how you hold the gun like this? It's a little ready, right? - Yeah. - Racked around, all right? So I mean, could that bend how you were doing it? Can you remember where you're doing it down here? Or down here? - I think it was on my shoulder. - It was on your shoulder. - Yeah. - Okay. - But I know the magazine was on the weapon. - The magazine wasn't on the weapon. - Well, there was a (beep) bolted in a chamber. That's obvious. And so this is-- - But attack me with this. - No, no, I'm not attacking you, man. I understand that's on an own trying to figure out why. - Between the tidy crime scene and Skyler's changing story, investigators believe he's holding the truth close to the vest. - If you're just really mad and you pointed the gun and you pulled a trigger out of just a fit of passion or rage, that's one thing. But to sit there as professional soldier and lie to me, that's another thing. That makes you two categories. One guy that had a (beep) split second of a stupid mistake or anger versus a guy that's a calculated murderer. And I want to figure out which one of those of you are. Okay, so this is the facts of life, son. Is that, Skyler, your wife is gone. Now, what I want to try to figure out is if you intentionally shot her in the back of the head, or if you, if it was an accident, or if you were just really pissed off and you were just like, damn it, and you had the gun right there, and you're five feet away, and you pulled a trigger, and then you go, oh, (beep) now what did I do? And I want to figure out what happened. - That weapon, I'm almost, okay. I think it was on my middle of my chest or my shoulder. It was up high, okay. My hand, it might, I don't remember if it was, that's the thing I do know. I think it was, okay, I think it was in the, it was, most likely it was on the (beep) it was on the (beep) because that (beep) went off. - Were you playing with the gun, and you just pulled the magazine out and you go click, as you thought it was gonna go click, and it went bang. Is that the difference? Is that what we're talking about? - Yeah, it went off. - A confession of sorts. But despite admitting he pulled the trigger, Skyler still insists that he didn't know there was a bullet in the chamber, a version of the story that might be even less believable than the ones before. Because according to Skyler's own statements, he's been shooting and clearing firearms for roughly 16. years. So wherever I took the round, I had a rifle, I pulled the tree when I was on fire and it went off and it struck my wife in the back of the head and it killed my wife. It did? You're exactly right, Scarlett. Why? Why? Why did you have a point at her hand and pull the tree? I don't know. I was fire. I was real. All fire arms always loaded. I know. So what was your thought process? For having the gun pointed at her, having pulled the tree. You said that you intentionally pointed at her head and I missed that. In this room and it's on video saying that you intentionally pointed the rifle at her head. I did intentionally point at her head. It was in the direction and I was paying attention to what direction. I knew I was behind her. I knew that she was sitting at the desk. Okay. And I knew that the rifle was pointing at that direction. I was not thinking straight. I just did it. I had a reaction just quick and I grabbed her, I pulled her, grabbed it, and bam, went off. And I did not pay attention to that. Let's stop right there. Okay. Bam, it went off. You shoulder the f***ing gun. Put it to the back of your wife's head and pull the f*** trigger. And she died. Herb it. Did you not? I don't know why you would. That's why I'm asking you. That's why we're sitting in this interview room. That's why we're talking. Skylar doesn't tell investigators why he pointed the AR-15 at the back of Danielle's head. Instead, he asked if he can demonstrate how he did it. The bed was right here. I grabbed the weapon. I picked up the weapon on my leg. I took the magazine out. I put it on the bed. I put it on fire and I pulled the trigger. It went off and it was on my shoulder. It was on my shoulder. It was on the breast. It was up high. It was right here. I don't know why I thought it was on my thigh, but that was just. You didn't think it was on your thigh. You thought the story sounded better in Skylar. I'm not a f***ing stupid guy. And I don't want to be treated like I'm stupid. Arguments like this one where Skylar tries to control the narrative may not be new to him, according to Danielle's friends and loved ones. On a Facebook page called Justice for Danielle Ripian, Danielle's family and others who knew her alleged that her relationship with Skylar may have been abusive. One group member says early on in the relationship Skylar would stop Danielle from seeing friends. Another member says she didn't see Skylar at controlling, but she did notice something strange about their apartment. There was no sign that Danielle actually lived there. Gun magazines, alcohol and 15 firearms had their place in the home. But when it came to things, Danielle might have enjoyed like art or home decor. Money was apparently too tight. One of Danielle's co-workers claims Danielle had to ask Skylar for permission to make purchases, but it looks like Skylar was okay with setting money aside for more firearms. Let me tell you this guy. Sit your ass down. This is my f***ing house. You put a gun to your shoulder and you pull the trigger with a gun aiming to back your wife's head and you kill her. She's dead. That's a tragedy. That's a f***ing tragedy. My biggest concern right now is this a tragedy by accident or did you intentionally shoot your wife? And that's what we're going to find out. And I'm going to tell you if I find a f***ing letter or anything in there that indicates that she was having an affair, it don't look f***ing good. So stop the f***ing. Don't say I initially thought don't f***ing lie to me man. I've been doing this job for 25 years. People lie to me every f***ing day. I am a human lie detector test. Stop f***ing lying. Investigators know there's more to the story because there's a critical detail Skylar has yet to mention the aftermath. Why would you go outside and I have a written statement saying that you went outside and you told your neighbor that she was cleaning a hunting rifle. I would say she was to stay with your neighbor. They said it on the scene and they came out here in a room similar to this and said the same thing. Were you trying to cover up from a f***ing up? No. She was not clean. She was on them. She was on her by a Mac on a granary whatever her f***ing work that she works with. Okay. She was not clean. I was not clean. I got her from the couch so I was watching the TV and I went to bed. I went to bed to let him. I was the only one putting on my seat. My parents were around the chamber and I did not charge that weapon ever. The blood near the back door supports the witness's statement even though Skylar denies it. And a full search of the apartment reveals that the gun wasn't the only physical evidence Skylar may have attempted to hide. The alcohol bottles Danielle got for Skylar's return were found emptied outside the apartment. After Danielle was shot, Skylar dropped them from the apartment balcony. There's another thing after the neighbor heard the gun shot go off. They heard the toilet flush twice from your apartment. What were you flushing? The alcohol had, she got me the fireball. Now she was really worried it happened. Are you flushing the alcohol? I'm not 21 and I was just really scared. Your wife was dead with a bolt in the back of her head and you're worried about getting the misdemeanor ticket. It seems like to me it seems like a cover. You're trying to cover it up. You're trying to make it not look so bad for you. Okay. So we finally got it out that the weapon was on her shoulder and that you pulled the trigger. Okay. And then you flushed the fireball? Yeah, no, that was, yeah. I saw I was just so scared. I didn't want to even touch my wife because I was so scared. I was scared. She's hurt. I know. Okay, well I went up to her. I didn't touch her though. I knew. She's hurt, man. Investigators wonder if that was exactly what Skylar wanted for Danielle to hurt, especially if he was hurt. Through text messages and interviews, police learned that Danielle had been hanging out with a friend from high school while Skylar was away at training. A friend named Jeremy. Could jealousy have been the motive behind Danielle's death? Text messages between the married couple reveal that Skylar had recently accused Danielle of going on a date with Jeremy. Danielle said that wasn't the case. Investigators believe that Skylar shot Danielle in a fit of jealous rage. A rage that allegedly boiled over with those alcohol bottles Skylar tried to dispose of. Skylar told investigators he never drank, but apparently that wasn't the case. Skylar wanted alcohol ready for him when he got home from battlefield training, but he wasn't 21 yet, so he asked a friend to purchase it for him. At the last minute, the friend cancelled, so Danielle asked Jeremy to buy the bottles. Investigators believe that when Skylar found out it was Jeremy who bought the liquor, he made sure that was the last time Danielle would see him. You might have been in a fit of rage where you pulled that trigger and you killed her because you were pissed off, but she deserves the, we deserve to know that answer for her memory. She deserves that. So tell me what the **** you're pointing a gun to back your wife's head for. Tell me why. Don't give me no **** just man to man, nut up and tell me why. I was not paying attention where I was pointing the weapon. You're sitting there thinking that **** is a dumb ass and I'm getting over on it. I have no problem with you guys. I don't understand what you think I do. I don't really have no problem. Because your story doesn't make sense. There's a huge **** gap in your story. Your detailed all the way through up to the point where we had to talk to you for two and a half hours to get you to realize that we're smarter than you think and you're shoulder to weapon because the **** trajectory of that **** down didn't match up, so immediately you changed the **** story. That's about the eight time you've done that. This tells me somebody that acted out of rage and out of anger. You acted out of rage and out of anger. You shot your wife in the back of the head and then after you did it, you realized what you did and realized oh my god, this is permanent. How stupid was I to do this? Now what am I going to do to cover this up? What can I come up with? That's what this tells me. A firearm forensics examiner performs a drop test on the AR-15 rifle used to shoot Danielle and finds that it is in perfect working condition. A trigger pull analysis also finds that the gun works as the manufacturer intended, meaning it would not have gone off without someone pulling the trigger. The firearm examination, the physical evidence at the scene, and Skyler's admission that he did pull the trigger, led to coma detectives to charge 20 year old Skyler Nemitz with first degree murder. Nemitz's mom, Danette Heller, who loudly and publicly proclaims her son's innocence, hires a powerful legal team to represent Skyler. Heller drains her savings and borrows enough money for Skyler to post bail on October 31st, 2014. In January 2016, Skyler's trial begins 16 days into the trial on February 11th. Skyler takes the stand. Did you see the guy shot me? I saw the gunshot. Where did you see it? I saw it on the back of her head. Did you know she was dead? I knew she was dead. A year and a half after Danielle's death, the prosecution questions him about his conflicting stories and details he omitted. Skyler appears unemotional. You talked about how the weapon went off because you slammed it on your file into that? Yes, as I was explaining this to you. I remember saying that. You did say that, correct? I know I said that by viewing my video yesterday. After that, you went through the rest of what happened. But you never said anything in that initial accounting that opened a new question of what happened about going to get those bottles, correct? Yeah, not for that, I remember, sir. But that doesn't mean the jury will find him guilty. On March 3rd, the judge reads the verdict. Skyler Nemitz is found not guilty of first-degree murder. Instead, the jury finds him guilty of the lesser included offense of first-degree manslaughter in the shooting death of Danielle. Skyler is sentenced to eight and a half years for the killing of Danielle and an additional five years for the use of a firearm to commit the crime. In total, Skyler Nemitz will serve 13 and a half years in confinement. In 2018, Skyler filed an appeal, stating that there was insufficient evidence to prove that he was in fact armed. He also requests to receive credit for time already served. In 2020, Skyler filed a second appeal, stating that the court failed to consider his youth at the time of his sentencing. Skyler was 20 years old when he was convicted of manslaughter. The state of Washington denies both appeals, but grants Skyler credit for time served. Skyler Nemitz is now 31 years old, serving time at Coyote Ridge Correction Center. His earliest possible release date is in 2028. He'll be 34 years old. For Long Crime Investigates, I'm Kristen Thorn. [MUSIC]