Jeremy Goodale is scheduled to be sentenced this week for his role in the 2021 murder of Fairfield High School Spanish teacher Nohema Graber after she gave a friend of Goodale a failing grade.
On April 18, Goodale and co-defendant Willard Miller pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in Jefferson County court. Miller was sentenced to life in prison in July by Judge Shawn Showers, with the potential of parole after 35 years.
Prosecutors prosecuted the two as adults for the offence in 2021, according to the Des Moines Register, which is part of the USA TODAY Network.
Graber’s family was unable to be reached for comment.
Under a plea agreement, prosecutors will seek 25 years to life in prison for Goodale.
On Tuesday, April 18, 2023, Jeremy Goodale enters a guilty plea in the 2021 murder of Fairfield Spanish teacher Nohema Graber at the Jefferson County Courthouse in Fairfield.
Jefferson County Attorney Chauncey Moulding, who is involved in the prosecution, and Goodale’s public defender, Allen Cook, did not answer to a request for comment from USA TODAY.
According to Iowa Department of Corrections inmate statistics, Miller was in state custody as of Nov. 4. Maj. Michael Simons, the administrator of the Jefferson County Jail, verified Goodale’s custody on Nov. 7.
On Nov. 3, 2021, Fairfield Police Department detectives discovered her body in a park, covered with a tarp and wheelbarrow, after her family reported her missing the day before.
When the youths murdered Graber after Miller received a grade from Graber that he told investigators would damage his grade point average, the little southern Iowa city was startled.
The Fairfield (Iowa) Police Department shared this photo of Nohema Graber. The Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office said Thursday, Nov. 4, 2021, that two juveniles have been charged as adults in the death of Nohema Graber, a Fairfield High School teacher.
According to criminal complaints received by the Des Moines Register, police were tipped off by someone that Goodale and Miller may have been involved in Graber’s disappearance.