Iowa High School Students Accused Of Killing Spanish Teacher Plead Guilty

Iowa High School Students Accused Of Killing Spanish Teacher Over Bad Grade Plead Guilty

Two Iowa teenagers accused of beating to death their Spanish teacher as payback for a bad grade she gave one of them have pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in the savage slaying.

Willard Miller and Jeremy Goodale changed their pleas to guilty Tuesday and admitted to killing Fairfield High School teacher Nohema Graber, 66, on Nov. 2, 2021, when they were 16.

Miller had met with Graber to discuss his poor grade in her class on the afternoon of her murder, according to investigators. Prosecutors said the evidence showed both teens helped ambush Graber and struck her with a baseball bat in a park while she was taking a walk. Miller admitted to helping plan and carry out the killing but denied ever hitting Graber.

 

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Goodale, 18, testified that Miller, 17, initiated the plan and that both of them struck her. “On Nov. 2 of 2021, I met Willard Miller at Chautauqua Park, and I understood that he had intent to kill Mrs. Graber,” he said as he entered his plea.

He said Miller “brought a bat among other supplies to go through with the murder.” “After he had struck Nohema Graber, he then moved her off of the trail where I then struck her and she died as a result,” Goodale added. “Afterwards, we removed any evidence that we could.”

Graber’s body was found under a tarp, wheelbarrow and railroad ties in the park in Fairfield, a town of about 9,400 about 100 miles southeast of Des Moines. Her van was seen leaving the park with two males in the front seat. It was as left at the end of a rural road.

After getting a phone call from Goodale, a witness later picked up the two as they walked to town on that road, officials said. Investigators said the teens later bragged about the kiiling on social media.

They were charged as adults due to the severity of the crime, but they weren’t subject to a mandatory sentence of life without parole because they were 16.