DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) —
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 an hourslong sentencing hearing.
Miller and another teen, Jeremy Goodale, had pleaded guilty in April to the 2021 baseball bat attack on Nohema Graber, a 66-year-old Spanish teacher, as she took her regular afternoon walk in a park in the city of Fairfield.
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 will be sentenced later.
Before being sentenced, Miller said 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.”
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A sentencing hearing for the first of two Iowa teenagers who pleaded guilty to beating their high school Spanish teacher to death with a baseball bat was underway Thursday with details about the investigation into the killing.
Willard Miller and Jeremy Goodale pleaded guilty in April to the Nov. 2, 2021, attack on Nohema Graber in a park in Fairfield, Iowa, where the 66-year-old teacher regularly walked after school. Prosecutors said the teens, who were 16 at the time, were angry at Graber because of a bad grade she had given Miller.
Miller will be the first sentenced after he pleaded guilty as part of an agreement in which prosecutors recommended a term of between 30 years and life in prison, with the possibility of parole.
Under Goodale's agreement to plead guilty, prosecutors recommended a sentence of between 25 years and life with the possibility of parole. Goodale's sentencing is scheduled for August but his lawyers have sought a delay in the hearing.
Thursday's sentencing hearing at the Jefferson County Courthouse in Fairfield initially focused on investigators who described how officers found Graber's body and social media postings that led them to question and then arrest Miller and Goodale. Prosecutors also played recordings of a police interview with Miller and displayed photographs of the crime scene, including graphic images of Graber's body.
Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation agent Trent Vileta recalled police finding Graber's body under a tarp in Chautauqua Park. A wheelbarrow and railroad tie had been placed over the tarp, making it hard to see the body, with only a shoe and a hand visible.
After pulling back part of the tarp, Vileta said the only significant injury to Graber appeared to be a severe head wound.
In the interview, Miller initially said he knew nothing about Graber's disappearance but later said he saw other people carrying her body in the park.
Later Thursday, the court is expected to hear statements from Graber's relatives.
Goodale earlier testified that he and Miller had planned the killing for about two weeks and that both of them struck the victim and then hid her body. Goodale said Miller had initiated the plan. Miller admitted helping but denied hitting Graber.
The two were charged as adults, but because of their age they were not subject to a mandatory sentence of life without parole for first-degree murder. Miller is now 17 and Goodale is 18.
Fairfield, a city of 9,400 people, is about 100 miles (160 kilometers) southeast of Des Moines.
Scott Mcfetridge, The Associated Press
