An Iowa teen was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 35 years for murdering his Spanish teacher with a bat over a bad grade. The 17-year-old Willard Miller and another teenager, Jeremy Goodale, 18, both entered guilty pleas in April for the first-degree murder of Nohema Graber, a 66-year-old mother of three and a Spanish teacher.
The murder happened in Fairfield, a city in southeast Iowa with a population of fewer than 10,000 people and located roughly 100 miles from Des Moines. Authorities claim that Graber was attacked by teenagers in a park where she frequently walked after school. She gave Miller a failing grade, which became the motivation for the murder.
Who is Willard Miller?
The 17-year-old is a student at Fairfield High School. According to a court document from November 2022, Miller admitted to investigators that he felt “frustration” about Graber’s grade, which had a negative impact on his grade point average. Miller initially denied knowing about the murder. He, however, later claimed that “a roving gang of masked kids” had compelled him to help hide Graber’s body and leave the scene in her van.
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Miller admitted responsibility in court on Thursday and apologized to the Graber family before receiving his punishment.
“I would like to apologize for my actions, first and foremost to the family,” he said. “I am sincerely sorry for the distress I have caused you and the devastation I have caused your family.”
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In addition, Miller offered his apologies to the Fairfield neighborhood, his own family, Goodale’s family, and the police.
“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,” he said. “I still did what I did, and I accept responsibility for that.”
