Two teenagers killed Spanish teacher over bad grade, Iowa prosecutors allege

Two Iowa teenagers killed their high school Spanish teacher because of frustration over a bad grade, prosecutors said on Tuesday in court documents.

The documents were filed ahead of a hearing on Wednesday where a judge will hear arguments on whether to suppress any evidence against Willard Miller and Jeremy Goodale, who are charged with murdering Nohema Graber in Fairfield, a town of about 9,400 100 miles from Des Moines.

Investigators found that Miller met Graber at Fairfield high school on the afternoon of 2 November 2021, to discuss his poor grade. Graber later drove her van to a park where she was known to take daily walks after school, authorities say. Witnesses saw the van leaving the park less than an hour later with two males in the front seat.

The van was left at the end of a rural road. After a phone call from Goodale, a witness picked up Goodale and Miller as they walked to town on that road, investigators say.

In a police interview, Miller described frustrations with the way Graber taught Spanish and over how the grade in her class was lowering his GPA.

Both teens, now 17, will be tried as adults. In Iowa, the penalty for a first-degree murder conviction is life in prison. Iowa supreme court rulings require juveniles convicted of even the most serious crimes to be given a chance for parole.