Judge sentences Iowa teen convicted of killing Spanish teacher

An Iowa teen was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 25 years on Wednesday for the 2021 killing of Spanish teacher Nohema Graber.

The sentence came during a 2-day hearing recounting the evidence in the case against Jeremy Goodale, 18, and his friend Willard Miller, who were both convicted of beating Graber after the 66-year-old gave Miller a bad grade.

Goodale and Miller both pleaded guilty to first-degree murder on April 18 in Jefferson County court. Judge Shawn Showers sentenced Miller in July to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 35 years.

The prosecution said during Goodale's sentencing hearing that his face was the last Graber saw before Miller fatally struck her in the back of the head with a baseball bat.

Goodale read a pre-written apology in an Iowa courtroom Wednesday to Nohema Graber's family, his own family and friends for his role in the 2021 murder of Graber.

"I'm sorry I didn't stop this from happening in the first place," Goodale said to Graber's family, holding back tears.

Prosecutors charged the two as adults for the crime in 2021, the Des Moines Register, part of the USA TODAY Network, reported.

Graber's family couldn't be reached for comment.

Jefferson County Attorney Chauncey Moulding, part of the prosecution, did not respond to USA TODAY's request for comment.

Goodale's public defender, Allen Cook, declined to comment.

Miller is in state custody as of Nov. 4, according to Iowa Department of Corrections inmate records. Jefferson County Jail Administrator Maj. Michael Simons confirmed on Nov. 7 that Goodale is being held at the county's detention center.

Fairfield Police Department officers discovered the Fairfield High School teacher's body in a park on Nov. 3, 2021, covered by a tarp and wheelbarrow after her family reported her missing the day prior.

Graber's murder shocked the small southeastern Iowa city when the teens murdered her after Miller earned a grade from Graber that he told investigators would hurt his grade point average.

Police were tipped off by someone that Goodale and Miller may have been involved in Graber's disappearance, according to criminal complaints obtained by the Des Moines Register.

New details emerge during sentencing hearing

Witness testimonies brought new details in the case to light on Tuesday.

The first day of Goodale's sentencing hearing started early Tuesday in an Iowa courtroom where prosecutors had Fairfield Police Lt. Julie Kinsella and Iowa Department of Public Safety Division of Criminal Investigation Special Agents Trent Vileta and Ryan Kedley testify as witnesses.

Vileta told the courtroom a friend of the two provided screenshots and messages from Snapchat that Vileta said was integral to the case.

"I would say that's almost an understatement," he told the courtroom.

The screenshots were shown to the courtroom. Goodale made one post that said "Time to hide a body" with a jug of Clorox bleach in the background. In another post, he took a selfie that said "POV you're my Spanish teacher and this is the last thing you see."

Kinsella later said in the hearing Miller sought to kill his Spanish teacher because the grade she gave him made him ineligible for an exchange trip to Spain.

Kinsella said Miller wanted to kill Graber because he was "basically flunking Spanish."

"He wanted to go to Spain that summer to build his college resume. He couldn't get into the exchange program without a passing grade in Spanish," Kinsella said. "So he came up with the idea of killing Mrs. Graber because she was flunking him in Spanish and he asked Jeremy Goodale to assist him."

After Graber's murder, Kinsella revealed many teachers in the Fairfield School District were afraid to teach because. If any kids had behavioral issues, Kinsella said teachers made more complaints directly to the police as opposed to before when it was handled internally, based on severity.

"Parents were scared to send their kids to school. Teachers were scared to teach in school," she said. "I think the general public felt a lack of security was ripped from them as a result of this murder."

Who was Nohema Graber?

According to Graber's obituary, she was born in Xalapa, Veracruz, Mexico on Nov. 10, 1954, and worked for 17 years as a flight attendant for Mexicana de Aviación and studied to be a commercial airline pilot. She later became one of the first women in Mexico trained to fly passenger jets, her obituary reads.

She met her ex-husband Paul in Xalapa and though divorced, the two stayed close. Paul died June 29, according to his obituary at the Behner Funeral Home and Crematory.

Tom Graber, Paul's brother, spoke at Miller's sentencing in July and said had Nohema been alive, she would've been able to catch and treat Paul's metastatic cancer.

"Not only was Nohema robbed of 30-some of the best years of her life, her murder deprived Paul Graber of the love of his life and certainly hastened Paul's own premature death," he said.

Leading up to her murder, Graber taught Spanish at Fairfield High School since 2012 and was well-known in the town's Latino community, according to her obituary.

"Nohema lived for her children, her family and her faith," according to her obituary. "Her next priorities were her job as a teacher and the students she taught, her parish, and the Latin community in Fairfield."

Fairfield Community School District Interim Superintendent Stephanie Mishler said in a statement to USA TODAY on Nov. 6 that the district's primary focus is respecting Graber's family's privacy and grieving process.

"As for the impact of Nohema Graber's tragic passing on the district, we can assure you that it has deeply affected our community, and we are committed to supporting each other and working toward healing," Mishler wrote. "We will continue to remember Nohema in various ways that are respectful and considerate of her memory."

Graber's murder shocks Latino community

Joe Enriquez Henry, state political director of the League of United Latin American Citizens Iowa, told USA TODAY on Nov. 8 that despite the convictions and guilty pleas, he doesn't feel justice was served. Henry also serves as the president of the Des Moines chapter of the organization.

"It never had a deeper investigation," he said. "I'm glad these men were convicted and sentenced, but there should've been a hate crime attached to this."

In 2021, Moulding, the prosecutor in the case, said his office would look into whether the killing was related to race. But ultimately, Goodale and Miller were charged with first-degree murder.

Moulding didn't immediately respond to USA TODAY's multiple requests for comment.

The teens followed Graber to a park they knew she frequented and attacked her, prosecutors said during Miller's sentencing in July.

"To take the life of this teacher, mentor, what would've made them think they could do this unless racism or hate had a part to view this person as less than a human," Henry said.

Contributing: The Associated Press; Jeanine Santucci, USA TODAY; Andrea Sahouri, William Morris, Des Moines Register.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Jeremy Goodale, convicted of killing Spanish teacher,sentenced