More information regarding two white Iowa teens who are alleged to have killed their Spanish teacher last fall in a local park has emerged. Authorities say the pair assaulted the instructor with a baseball bat, and one posted details about the crime on social media for their classmates to see.
According to the Des Moines Register, on Tuesday, March 2, Judge Shawn Showers scheduled the trials for both 16-year-olds charged with first-degree murder for the death of Nohema Graber, a teacher at the Fairfield High School.
The trials will now take place almost a year after the killing of the 66-year-old.
Showers will hear the case against Jeremy Goodale on Aug. 23 and against Willard Miller on Nov. 1.
Goodale and Miller have been in police custody since Graber’s body was discovered on Wednesday, Nov. 3, in the Chautauqua Park in Fairfield, hidden beneath a cluster of railroad ties, tarp, and a wheelbarrow.
Certain details from the search warrant that were sealed by the judge until this week reiterated preliminary findings including that the boys stalked, “ambushed” and “inflicted trauma” to Graber.
The revelations came to light, thanks to a friend of Goodale who showed police Snapchat messages where the teens bragged about the “planning, execution, and disposal of evidence.”
One of the posts described where Graber’s car was parked, where her body was located, and how they covered up their tracks.
Records show the police reviewed footage from the day of the murder showing the teacher’s car leaving Fairfield High School and arriving at the park around 4 p.m. on Nov. 2. It also showed the car leaving the park around quarter to 5 p.m. A pickup truck is seen following Graber’s car.
Around midnight, a bystander observed a male bringing a wheelbarrow toward the park. Miller confessed to officers he brought the wheelbarrow from his home.
The defense has filed for the documents containing information about the case to be resealed.
Judge Showers also rejected a request from the young men’s attorneys to rule on a motion challenging some prosecution evidence before proceeding with a hearing to decide if the boys should be tried in the juvenile system or in adult court.
Additionally, he rejected the defense’s request not to allow the media and public to view a hearing about where the case will be tried.
Representation for the defense appealed both rulings and argued the prosecution should have perimeters on the evidence that is used, as a part of its argument against trying the boys in adult court.
Jefferson County Attorney Chauncey Moulding said in December, “Because of the nature of the allegations, the undersigned argues there could be no reasonable prospects for rehabilitating the child in the juvenile court system before the defendant turns 18 and ‘ages out’ of that system.”
“Such an outcome would be outside the interests of the juvenile and the community at large,” he added.
“This prosecuting attorney cannot fathom any combination of programming at any Iowa juvenile facility which could appropriately treat or rehabilitate the defendant if adjudicated as a juvenile.”
In the state of Iowa, the crime committed falls under Statutory Exclusion, which states “designated offenses committed by a child 16 or older are excluded from juvenile court jurisdiction and prosecuted in adult court.”
In response, Showers decided to delay the hearing and both cases, leaving room for the Iowa Supreme Court to rule on the decision.
Should the boys be tried and convicted for murder as adults, they would not be sentenced to natural life in prison. In 2016, the Iowa Supreme Court banned judges from imposing murder sentences of life without parole for offenders under age 18.
While a lot of new information was revealed in this case, one piece to the puzzle remains unclear, a motive.