Picture of Nohema Graber; booking photos of Willlard Noble Chaiden Miller (top right), and Jeremy Everett Goodale (bottom right). (Image of Graber via the city of Fairfield, Iowa; mugshots of Willard Noble Chaiden Miller and Jeremy Everett Goodale via Jefferson County Jail)
One of the teens charged with beating a Spanish teacher to death with a baseball bat is set to testify against his co-defendant, a prosecutor said Wednesday.
“The case against Mr. Miller and Mr. Goodale has been severed,” Jefferson County Attorney Chauncey Moulding told the court. “They were to be tried separately, and subsequently, Mr. Goodale has turned state’s evidence and is listed as a witness against Mr. Miller.”
This happened during a hearing to suppress evidence against Willard Noble Chaiden Miller, 17. Authorities claim he and Jeremy Everett Goodale, 17, attacked teacher Nohama Graber amid her usual walk through Chautauqua Park in Fairfield, Iowa. The alleged motive is that Graber had given Miller a bad grade.
No plea deal was announced. Goodale’s attorney Allen Cook declined to comment when Law&Crime reached out by phone.
According to police, the deceased woman was found “concealed under a tarp, wheelbarrow and railroad ties.” In an interview with Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation agents, Miller allegedly admitted that he provided the wheelbarrow from his own home. A witness allegedly told police they saw a wheelbarrow being pushed down a city street just before midnight on Nov. 2, 2021.
According to the documents, a witness also told investigators that some items related to the murder were taken by the defendants and stored in Goodale’s home. On Nov. 4, 2021, police say they recovered clothing, strands of hair, bath towels and two baseball bats-all of which are considered key evidence in the case–from Goodale’s home.
Miller and Goodale were 16 at the time of Graber’s death, but they are set to be tried as adults.
Miller’s defense tried to suppress his statements to law enforcement, for example saying that he was not afforded an attorney at the time of his questioning. Moulding maintained that the teenager voluntarily spoke to authorities with signed permission from his mother.
As previously reported, court documents allege that a witness who knew Goodale showed law enforcement the defendant’s Snapchat messages that showed Goodale and Miller “were involved in the planning, execution, and disposal of evidence” related to their teacher’s death. According to the search warrant, the Snapchat messages reflect how the duo surveilled Graber, elaborate on how exactly she was killed, where her body was dumped, and how the evidence was concealed.
The court documents offer a timeline for the victim’s last moments and the immediate aftermath. Graber apparently parked her car at the park on the day she died at around 4:00 p.m. Her car left the park’s parking lot roughly 42 minutes later followed by a pickup truck.
“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,” her family said in a statement, according to CBS News. “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. The family deeply appreciates the outpouring of support during this unimaginable tragedy.”
Colin Kalmbacher contributed to this report.
Have a tip we should know? [email protected]
