Teen gets possibility of parole after 35 years for teacher's death
>> 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.
A judge sentenced Willard Miller after a sentencing hearing that lasted more than seven hours.
Miller and another teen, Jeremy Goodale, had pleaded guilty in April to the 2021 attack on Nohema Graber. The 66-year-old teacher was fatally beaten while taking her regular afternoon walk in a park in Fairfield.
In sentencing Miller, District Court Judge Shawn Showers acknowledged Miller's young age but also noted he had “cut Nohema Graber's precious life short,” devastating her family and the community.
“I find that your intent and actions were sinister and evil. Those acts resulted in the intentional loss of human life in a brutal fashion,” Showers said. “There is no excuse.”
As part of the plea agreement, prosecutors had recommended Miller receive a term of between 30 years and life in prison, with the possibility of parole. Goodale is to be sentenced later.
Before being sentenced, Miller said in court Thursday that he accepted responsibility for the killing and apologized to the Graber family.
“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 also apologized to the Fairfield community, his own family, Goodale's family and the police.
“I'm realizing just the magnitude of my actions, and I know it's wrong and I knew it was wrong and yet I still carried through,” he said. “I still did what I did, and I accept responsibility for that.”
Ten of Graber's relatives either read or submitted victim impact statements that described the woman as kind, caring and devoted to her family, students and church. Several also blamed Miller and Goodale for the recent death of Graber's husband, who suffered from cancer but delayed treatment amid his depression over the murder.