A 17-year-old boy has been jailed for life after a Spanish teacher was beaten to death with a baseball bat.
Willard Miller, who was 16 when Nohema Graber was beaten death in November 3, 2021. Miller admitted fatally beating the 66-year-old.
Miller, sitting in orange jail scrubs next to his attorneys, showed no emotion Thursday after District Judge Shawn Showers sentenced him to a minimum of 35 years with the possibility of parole. The judge called his actions “sinister and evil”.
Earlier in the day he expressed remorse for his actions. He apologised to Graber’s family, his own family, and the local community in Iowa.
“I’m sincerely sorry for the distress that I’ve caused you,” he told Graber’s family, reports NBC News. “What I did was wrong, and I accept responsibility for my carelessness, for my ignorance.”
Graber’s body was found in Chautauqua Park in Fairfield not long after she was reported missing. Police searched the park because she was known to walk there.
They discovered her “concealed under a tarp, wheelbarrow, and railroad ties,” the complaints said. Examinations found she suffered a trauma to the head.
Miller and Jermey Goodale, also 16 at the time of the killing, were charged as adults with first-degree murder.
Court documents said the pair observed Graber’s daily routine. They reportedly ambushed her, dragged her into the woods, and beat her with a baseball bat.
Prosecutors allege they grabbed Graber because Miller was failing her class. Miller was sentenced first after he pleaded guilty in April as part of an agreement that say prosecutors reccomend a sentence of 30 years in prison with the possibility of parole.
Goodale will be sentenced in August, although his lawyers have sought a delay in the hearing. Under his agreement to plead guilty, he will be facing 25 years with the possibility of parole.
Goodale, now aged 18, said they had planned the killing for around two weeks and that both of the struck her and hid the body. Goodale said Miller initiated the plan, although he Goodale denied striking her.
Defense attorney Christine Branstad argued in court Thursday that Miller should not have a mandatory sentence. She said her client cooperated with investigators, and there was no physical evidence of him swinging the bat that killed Graber.
Branstad said: “He goes through in great detail how he started out as dark jokes and a plan that just went forward. He admits providing the bat. He admits being a lookout. He admits participation.
“There is some disagreement about whether or not he had the bat and struck the first blow. … I think the evidence supports what Mr. Miller has said. There was no blood on him. There was blood on Mr. Goodale.”
While the two teenagers are charged as adults, their ages mean there is no mandatory sentence of life without parole. Graber’s loved ones and students described her as a loving and dedicated teacher whom everyone adored.
Relatives of Graber who gave victim impact statements remembered her as a devoted teacher, an avid churchgoer and a tireless champion for the poor and Hispanic communities.
They praised Graber as the primary breadwinner in her household as ex-husband Paul Graber was disabled for more than 20 years with extensive nerve damage to his feet and legs.
His brother, Tom Graber, said Paul died of metastatic cancer last week. Had Nohema Graber been around, Tom said she would have helped him get medical attention
