Iowa Supreme Court: Willard Chaiden Miller sentence to stand

DES MOINES, Iowa (KCRG) - Friday morning the Iowa Supreme Court handed down decisions in cases including one involving a teenager convicted of killing his Spanish teacher.

Back in September, attorneys for Willard Miller argued the punishment handed down in his case was unconstitutional. The Fairfield teen had pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in the death of Nohema Graber in 2021. Miller was sentenced to life in prison with the chance for parole after 35 years.

Miller’s attorneys argued it was an abuse of power for such a long sentence as the judge didn’t consider Miller was a minor at the time of the crime.

In Friday’s decision, documents show the “Iowa Constitution does not categorically ban sentencing juvenile offenders to minimum terms of incarceration.” The court also decided the district court properly applied the sentencing factors, and ultimately affirmed his sentence.

Chief Justice Christensen started the decision with this paragraph: “Worried that his poor Spanish grade might prevent him from studying abroad, the sixteen-year-old defendant recruited a friend and hatched a plan to kill his Spanish teacher. Together, the defendant and his friend spent weeks surveilling the teacher and developing a plan to ambush and kill her. After following through with this plan, the defendant bragged about his actions to another classmate, lied to the police about his participation, and later minimized his role in the teacher’s death. He eventually entered an agreement to plead guilty to first-degree murder and admit to facts supporting each element of the charge. As part of this agreement, the defendant agreed that he could only challenge his sentence and not his guilty plea or conviction."

Miller is not the only teenager facing decades behind bars in this case. He and Jeremy Goodale were both sentenced in November 2023. A judge sentenced Goodale to life behind bars with a possibility of parole after 25 years.

Miller and Goodale were 16 in November 2021 when they followed their teacher, Nohema Graber, while she was on a walk in a Fairfield park. They beat her to death with a baseball bat because of a bad grade.

The community of Fairfield has rallied behind Graber’s family and friends, honoring the teacher with an annual walk. Graber enjoyed spending her time walking at Chautauqua Park, where the teens killed her.

“This tragedy cannot stop people from coming to this park,” said Lee Muntz, one of those who took part in the walk in April 2023.

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