According to Iowa prosecutors, the two teenagers accused of murdering their high school Spanish teacher followed her movements daily before killing her and then dumping her body in a woods.
Nohema Graber (66-year-old Spanish teacher at Fairfield High School, Iowa) was found dead beneath a wheelbarrow and tarp on Nov. 2, at Chautauqua Park. She was also reported missing that day.
Police described “trauma to the head,” as her cause of death but an official cause of death has not been released.
Willard Noble Chaiden Miller (16) and Jeremy Everett Goodale (16) were her students. They were both charged as adults for the crime to the dismay of their defense lawyers.
They were both charged with first-degree homicide and conspiracy to compel murder.
Prosecutor and Jefferson County Attorney, Chauncy Moulding said the killing was a ruthless, pre-meditated murder, during which the students surveilled Graber, ambushed her on her daily walk and dragged her into the woods, then returned later “to better hide her lifeless body.”
“The nature and circumstances are of the alleged criminal act are as serious as exist under the Iowa criminal code,” Moulding wrote in Goodale’s filing.
“This prosecuting attorney cannot fathom any combination of programming at any Iowa juvenile facility which could appropriately treat or rehabilitate the Defendant if adjudicated as a juvenile.”
Prosecutors suggested that Goodale would be released at age 18 if the teens were charged with minor offenses. Goodale could also be tried and convicted for murder after serving only 24 months.
If they are convicted of first-degree killing as adults, both teens could be sentenced to life imprisonment
Both have pleaded not guilt and are being held in juvenile detention on a $1,000,000 cash bond each.