Two Iowa teenagers killed their high school Spanish teacher last year because of frustration over a bad grade, US prosecutors said in court documents Tuesday (local time).
The documents were filed ahead of a Wednesday hearing where a judge will hear arguments to suppress any evidence against Willard Miller and Jeremy Goodale, who are charged with murdering their high school Spanish teacher Nohema Graber, in the town of Fairfield.
A lawyer for Miller is asking the court to invalidate four search warrants and suppress evidence from Miller's home, comments he made to police, and information taken from his cellphone and the social media platform Snapchat.
Graber's body was found in a Fairfield park on November 3, 2021, hidden under a tarp, wheelbarrow and railroad ties. She had been beaten to death with a baseball bat. Miller and Goodale were 16 at the time.
Investigators found that Miller met with Graber at Fairfield High School on the afternoon of November 2, 2021, to discuss his poor grade in her class. Graber later drove her van to a park where she was known to take daily walks after school, authorities say. Witnesses saw her van leaving the park less than an hour later with two males in the front seat.
The van was left at the end of a rural road. After getting a phone call from Goodale, a witness later picked up Goodale and Miller as they walked to town on that road, investigators say.
In a police interview, Miller described frustration with the way Graber taught Spanish and how the grade in her class was lowering his GPA.
“The poor grade is believed to be the motive behind the murder of Graber which directly connects Miller,” court documents filed by Jefferson County Attorney Chauncey Moulding and Assistant Iowa Attorney General Scott Brown said.
Miller initially denied involvement in Graber’s disappearance but “later stated he had knowledge of everything but did not participate,” according to court documents. He told police that the real killers - a “roving group of masked kids” - forced him to provide his wheelbarrow to help move her body and to drive her van from the park.
The documents say a witness provided photos of a Snapchat conversation “that identify Goodale's admissions that he acted in concert with another person to bring about Graber's death.” The witness identified Goodale as making statements implicating both him and Miller.
Miller's lawyer, Christine Branstad, says that the search warrants were issued illegally in part because “law enforcement failed to provide information... to show the informant is reliable.”
Miller is scheduled for trial on March 20 and Goodale's trial is on December 5.
Both teens, now 17, will be tried as adults. In Iowa, the penalty for a first-degree murder conviction is life in prison.
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