Teen gets life with possible parole in teacher’s murder
DES MOINES — The first of two Iowa teenagers who pleaded guilty to beating their high school Spanish teacher to death with a baseball bat was sentenced Thursday to life with a possibility of parole after 35 years in prison.
Willard Miller, now 17, and Jeremy Goodale, now 18, pleaded guilty in April to killing Nohema Graber, 66, in a Fairfield, Iowa, park in 2021.
“I will not gloss over the fact that you and Mr. Goodale cut Nohema Graber’s precious life short,” Judge Shawn Showers said Thursday as he sentenced Miller at the Jefferson County Courthouse in Fairfield, a small city about 100 miles southeast of Des Moines.
In a plea deal, prosecutors had recommended Miller receive a term ranging from 30 years to life in prison, with a possibility of parole.
Before being sentenced, Miller said in court Thursday that he accepted responsibility for the killing.
“I would like to apologize for my actions, first and foremost to the family,” he said. “I am sincerely sorry for the distress I have caused you and the devastation I have caused your family.”
Miller and Goodale killed Graber on Nov. 2, 2021, in a park where she routinely walked after school. Prosecutors said the pair, who were 16 at the time, were angry at Graber because she had given Miller a bad grade.
At Thursday’s hearing, investigators said social media posts had led them to question the teens.
Prosecutors showed photographs of the crime scene including graphic images of Graber’s body, which was found under a tarp in Fairfield’s Chautauqua Park.
Goodale previously testified that Miller had initiated their plan to kill Graber, and said they had both struck her and hidden her body. Miller admitted to helping but denied hitting Graber.
The two were charged as adults, but as minors they avoided the mandatory sentence of life without parole for first-degree murder.
Goodale’s sentencing is scheduled for August, but his lawyers are seeking a delay. His plea deal calls for a recommended 25 years to life with possible parole.