Expand / Collapse search
Watch TV
Menu

This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. ©2024 FOX News Network, LLC. All rights reserved. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Market data provided by Factset. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. Legal Statement. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by Refinitiv Lipper.

Iowa

Iowa teen who admitted to helping to kill teacher with baseball bat set to be sentenced

IA student allegedly killed the teacher after being mad about a bad grade he had received

Associated Press
Published
close
Fox News Flash top headlines for July 6 Video

Fox News Flash top headlines for July 6

Fox News Flash top headlines are here. Check out what's clicking on Foxnews.com.

The first of two Iowa teenagers who pleaded guilty to beating their high school Spanish teacher to death with a baseball bat will be sentenced Thursday morning.

Willard Miller and Jeremy Goodale pleaded guilty in April to the 2021 attack on Nohema Graber in a park 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.

2 IOWA TEENS PLEAD GUILTY TO MURDER AFTER BEATING HIGH SCHOOL TEACHER TO DEATH

Willard Miller

Willard Miller is led into a courtroom on March 29, 2023, in Fairfield, Iowa, for a hearing related to the murder of Spanish teacher Nohema Graber.  (Kyle Ocker/The Ottumwa Courier via AP, Pool, File)

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.

IOWA MAN PLEADS GUILTY TO THREATENING 2 AZ OFFICIALS WITH 2020 ELECTION FRAUD ALLEGATIONS

The teens acknowledged killing Graber on Nov. 2, 2021, in Chautauqua Park in Fairfield, a city of 9,400 people about 100 miles southeast of Des Moines.

Goodale testified they 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.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

The two were charged as adults, but because of their age they weren’t subject to a mandatory sentence of life without parole for first-degree murder. Miller is now 17 and Goodale is 18.