FAIRFIELD, Iowa — Two Iowa teenagers pleaded guilty on Tuesday to first-degree murder charges in the death of a high school Spanish teacher, prosecutors said.
Willard Miller, 16, and Jeremy Goodale, 18, entered guilty pleas in Jefferson County Court in Fairfield, KCCI-TV reported.
Miller and Goodale were both 16 when they were charged with the Nov. 3, 2021, murder of Fairfield High School teacher Nohema Graber, 66, according to the Des Moines Register. The teacher’s body was discovered in a Fairfield park, hidden under a wheelbarrow, tarp and railroad ties, according to the newspaper.
Full story here from @ChadThompson108. https://t.co/iMNkXfDQW8
— James Stratton KCCI (@JStrattonKCCI) April 18, 2023
Miller’s trial was supposed to begin on Friday in Council Bluffs, KCCI reported. The case had been moved because of pretrial publicity. Miller appeared in court on Tuesday, followed by Goodale, according to the television station.
Prosecutors said that Graber had been beaten to death with a baseball bat, KCCI reported. Court documents stated that Miller was unhappy over a bad grade he received from Graber, the television station reported.
According to court records, both teens struck Graber while she was taking her regular after-school walk, according to WOI-TV. Miller admitted to helping plan the attack but denied hitting the teacher. According to Goodale, Miller initiated the plan and both teens struck her, the television station reported.
Graber was days short of her 67th birthday when she was killed, according to the Register. She was born in Mexico and after high school worked as a flight attendant and later as a pilot, the newspaper reported.
She moved to Fairfield with her then-husband during the 1990s and earned a degree in English from Wesleyan University in 2006. She taught at Fairfield High from 2012 until her death.
"Court accepts guilty plea..." the judge tells Goodale.
— James Stratton KCCI (@JStrattonKCCI) April 18, 2023
Sentencing date has not been announced. pic.twitter.com/Dwd2xjdPPN
Prosecutors agreed to recommend a sentence between 30 years and life in prison with the possibility of parole for Miller, KCCI reported. Prosecutors said they would recommend between 25 years and life with the possibility of parole for Goodale.
The two were charged as adults because of the severity of the crime, but they were not subject to the mandatory sentence of life without parole because they were 16 at the time, WOI reported.
A sentencing date has not been announced.
