Willard Miller (left) and Jeremy Goodale (right) were charged with the murder of their high school Spanish teacher, Nohema Graber (center) (Pictures: AP; Facebook)
Two teenage high school students killed their Spanish teacher after beating her with baseball bats because they received bad grades, prosecutors argue in newly revealed court documents.
Nohema Graber, a high school Spanish teacher in Fairfield, Iowa, was found beaten to death and hidden in a field outside the town of 9,400 people in early November, 2021.
Police arrested Willard Miller and Jeremy Goodale, both 16-year-old high school students, for her murder on November 2, 2021.
However, lawyers for Miller are disputing some of the evidence gathered against the teenager at a hearing on Wednesday. They are claiming police lacked probable cause when they searched his home and his cell phone.
Willard Noble Chaiden Miller is escorted into a bond review hearing at the Jefferson County Courthouse in November, 2021 (Picture: AP)
Jeremy Everett Goodale is escorted into a bond review hearing at the Jefferson County Courthouse in November 2021 (Picture: AP)
In response, prosecutors unsealed court documents detailing previously unreported details about the events leading up to and directly following Graber’s death.
Police discovered that Graber met with Miller at Fairfield High School on the afternoon of November 2 to discuss his poor grades in class.
‘The poor grade is believed to be the motive behind the murder of Graber which directly connects Miller,’ prosecutors said in a brief.
Graber then drove to a local park where she was known to take walks after work.
Nohema Graber’ taught Spanish at Fairfield High School, where Miller and Goodale attended (Picture: Facebook)
Witnesses at the park recalled seeing her van leaving, being driven by two young men in the driver and passenger seats.
Another witness confirmed to investigators that Miller and Goodale called them and asked to get picked up from a remote portion of a rural road. Graber’s van was found ditched at the end of that same road.
When Miller was questioned by police, he admitted that he was frustrated with the way Graber taught Spanish. He said he was present for the teacher’s murder, but didn’t participate.
Miller claimed Graber was kidnapped by a ‘roving group of masked kids’ who also forced him to help move her body with his wheelbarrow. The same group of assailants forced him to dispose of Graber’s van, the teenager claimed.
Police believe Miller’s poor grade in Graber’s Spanish class was the motivation behind the brutal murder (Picture: Facebook)
Police used the interview from Miller and the witnesses to obtain a search warrant. After searching his cell phone, they found he communicated with another person using the app SnapChat to ‘bring about Graber’s death,’ the criminal complain states.
Goodale was arrested shortly afterwards.
A search of Miller’s home also revealed ‘multiple clothing items appearing to have a substance consistent in appearance with that of blood.’
Both teenagers will be tried as adults in Iowa, where they could face up to life in prison. If convicted, they will both have a chance to receive parole.
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Spanish teacher Nohema Graber was found murdered in a small Iowa town in 2021.