A 17-year-old from Iowa has been sentenced to life in prison for bashing his 66-year-old Spanish teacher to death with a baseball bat over a bad grade. Willard Miller of Iowa will not be eligible for parole until the late 2050s.

Jeremy Goodale, Miller's co-conspirator who similarly pleaded guilty to killing Nohema Graber, will be sentenced at a later date, reported the Associated Press.

District Judge Shawn Showers told the teen, "I find that your intent and actions were sinister and evil. Those acts resulted in the intentional loss of human life in a brutal fashion. There is no excuse. There is not a systemic, societal problem that explains or justifies your actions."

What's the background?

Graber, a mother of three, was a Spanish teacher at Fairfield High School in Fairfield, Iowa.

Lauri Noll, Fairfield schools superintendent, said Graber "touched the lives of many students, parents and staff," reported the Des Moines Register.

Her family referred to her as an "angel of a woman" with "one of the kindest souls."

Graber's mangled body was discovered on Nov. 3, 2021, hidden under a tarp, a wheelbarrow, and railroad ties in Chatauqua Park.

TheBlaze previously reported that Miller had met with the victim at school on the afternoon of Nov. 2 to discuss his poor performance in her Spanish class. Miller later told investigators that he had been frustrated with Graber's teaching style and with how his poor grade in her class had negatively impacted his GPA.

After the meeting, Graber reportedly drove her van to Chatuauqua Park off Mediapolis Road, where she frequently went on walks after school.

Video evidence reportedly indicated she left the school and entered the park around 4 p.m..

Miller and Goodale nabbed the teacher in the park, then dragged her into the woods, where they murdered her.

The victim's van was driven out of the park roughly 45 minutes later, followed by a Ford pickup truck. Witnesses indicated males were driving both vehicles.

After ditching Graber's van at the end of a rural road, Miller caught a ride back with Goodale.

Around midnight on Nov. 2, a witness spotted a male pushing a wheelbarrow toward the park.

When pleading guilty in April, Miller claimed he had only acted as a lookout while Goodale killed Graber. However, in his conflicting account, Goodale suggested Miller delivered the first blow to the back of the victim's head, then noticing she was still alive, he finished the job.

Goodale said, "I met Willard Miller at Chatauqua Park. I understood he had the intent to kill Mrs. Graber. ... (Miller) had brought a bat among other supplies to go through with the murder, and after he had struck Nohema Graber, we then moved her off of the trail, where I then struck her, and she died as a result. After, we removed any evidence that we could."

Prosecutors cited plenty of social media evidence revealing the teens had "conducted surveillance on Ms. Graber, detailed the manner in which she was killed, where her body was located, where the vehicle was located, and how evidence of the crime was disposed of" — evidence later corroborated by officers.

Sentencing

During his sentencing hearing Thursday, which lasted over seven hours, Graber's brother-in-law Jim Graber told Miller, looking him dead in the eyes, "I hope you open your soul to the Lord and maybe ask for forgiveness there first, because you're on a spiral straight to hell," reported the Associated Press.

Nine other relatives of Graber also read or submitted victim impact statements, speaking to the care and devotion she paid her family, students and church.

The New York Post reported that several family members attributed the recent death of Graber's husband to her murder, noting that his resultant depression had prompted him to delay possibly lifesaving cancer treatments.

After hearing from Graber's family, District Judge Shawn Showers recommended a life sentence with the possibility of parole after 35 years.

Miller told the decedent's relatives, "I am sincerely sorry for the distress I have caused you and the devastation I have caused your family," adding, "I’m realizing just the magnitude of my actions, and I know it’s wrong and I knew it was wrong and yet I still carried through."

Goodale's sentencing is scheduled for August.

Spanish Teacher Killer Willard Miller Speaks Before Receiving Prison Sentence youtu.be

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