IOWA, UNITED STATES (AP) – The first of two Iowa teenagers who pleaded guilty to beating their high school Spanish teacher to death with a baseball bat was sentenced to life with a possibility of parole after 35 years in prison.
A judge sentenced Willard Miller after a sentencing hearing that lasted more than seven hours.
Miller and another teen, Jeremy Goodale, pleaded guilty in April to the 2021 attack on Nohema Graber. The 66-year-old teacher was fatally beaten while taking her regular afternoon walk in a park in Fairfield.
In sentencing Miller, District Court Judge Shawn Showers acknowledged Miller’s young age but also noted he had “cut Nohema Graber’s precious life short”, devastating her family and the community.
“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,” Showers said.
“There is no excuse.”
As part of the plea agreement, prosecutors recommended Miller receive a term of between 30 years and life in prison, with the possibility of parole. Goodale is to be sentenced later.
Before being sentenced, Miller said in court he accepted responsibility for the killing and apologised to the Graber family.
Miller also apologised to the Fairfield community, his own family, Goodale’s family and the police.
“I’m realising just the magnitude of my actions, and I know it’s wrong and I knew it was wrong and yet I still carried through,” he said. “I still did what I did, and I accept responsibility for that.”
Ten of Graber’s relatives either read or submitted victim impact statements that described the woman as kind, caring and devoted to her family, students and church. Several also blamed Miller and Goodale for the recent death of Graber’s husband, who suffered from cancer but delayed treatment amid his depression over the murder.
Miller and Goodale killed Graber on November 2, 2021, in a park where the teacher routinely 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.
Under Goodale’s agreement to plead guilty, prosecutors had 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.
