Jeremy Goodale to testify against co-defendant Willard Miller in death of Iowa teacher Nohema Graber

One of two youngsters charged in the thrashing death of an Iowa highschool teacher will testify against his co-defendant, a prosecutor introduced Wednesday.

Jeremy Goodale has agreed to testify against Willard Miller all over Miller’s upcoming trial, Jefferson County Attorney Chauncey Moulding mentioned all over a courtroom listening to.

Goodale and Miller are every charged with first-degree homicide in the November 2021 death of 66-year-old Nohema Graber, their Spanish teacher at Fairfield High School. Her frame was once discovered in a Fairfield park in November 2021.

Investigators have mentioned Graber was once overwhelmed to death. In November, prosecutors mentioned the kids killed Graber as a result of of frustration over a unhealthy grade, in accordance to courtroom paperwork.

“The poor grade is believed to be the motive behind the murder of Graber which directly connects Miller,” courtroom paperwork filed via Jefferson County Attorney Chauncey Moulding and Assistant Iowa Attorney General Scott Brown mentioned.

Court information don’t point out that Goodale has reached a plea deal and it was once unclear what he may obtain in alternate for his testimony, The Des Moines Register reported. Goodale’s lawyer declined to remark.

Miller is scheduled for trial in April and Goodale in May.

The disclosure got here all over a listening to on a movement via Miller to suppress proof from interviews the 2 youngsters gave to investigators. The movement additionally accuses police of mendacity on seek warrant programs in the case. Miller has a pending attraction sooner than the Iowa Supreme Court at the denial of a prior movement to suppress on an identical problems.

Miller to begin with denied any involvement in Graber’s disappearance however “later stated he had knowledge of everything but did not participate,” in accordance to courtroom paperwork. He informed police that the actual killers — a “roving group of masked kids” — pressured him to supply his wheelbarrow to lend a hand transfer her frame and to power her van from the park.

Graber have been a Spanish teacher at Fairfield High School since 2012, in accordance to the varsity’s web page. 

“To know Nohema was to love her — she was the kind of person every community longs to have in its midst and we were blessed to have her in our lives,” Graber’s circle of relatives mentioned in a observation after her death. “She lived for her children, her family and her faith. Her next priorities were her job as an educator and the children she taught, her local Parish, and the Spanish-speaking community in Fairfield.”