Fairfield teens charged with killing teacher want to delay hearing

Two Fairfield teens charged with murder in the slaying of a high school Spanish teacher are asking a judge to delay hearings requesting to move their cases from adult to juvenile court.

Christine Branstad, lawyer for Willard Chaiden Miller, 16, filed the motion to continue the hearing previously set for Thursday to March 17. Lawyers for the other teen, Jeremy Everett Goodale, 16, also joined in the request, and the prosecution didn’t object.

Each teen is charged with first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit a forcible felony. If the cases were moved back to juvenile court, they would face lesser sentences if convicted.

Branstad, in her motion, said due to her “failure,” the juvenile court officer only recently obtained the necessary releases needed to complete a report on Miller and it wasn’t filed until Friday. Branstad said she needs additional time to review the report and prepare for the hearing, and she also has a jury trial underway.

She asked the court if it could set a scheduling conference Thursday that would allow the judge to confirm availability of both defense lawyers and the prosecution.

A judge hadn’t responded to the motion as of Monday afternoon.

Goodale’s attorneys, in his previous motion, made a similar argument to move the trial into juvenile court — that the juvenile court should have “exclusive original jurisdiction in proceedings concerning a child.”

Iowa law allows a transfer to adult court for teenagers over 16 charged with forcible felonies “upon motion and for good cause.”

Jefferson County Attorney Chauncey Moulding, in his resistance to Miller’s initial request, he said there was no “reasonable prospects for rehabilitating the child in the juvenile court system before the defendant turns 18 and ages out of that system” because of the nature of the crime.

Juveniles found guilty of a serious offense in juvenile court are typically sent to a training school or residential facility and released at age 18.

Moulding, in his motion regarding Goodale, argued in the juvenile system he would be released at 18, which is less than 24 months.

“This prosecuting attorney cannot fathom any combination of programming at any Iowa juvenile facility which could appropriately treat or rehabilitate the defendant if adjudicated as a juvenile,” Moulding said.

Officials say the teens monitored teacher Nohema Graber’s daily routines before ambushing her on a daily walk in the park, killing her and later hiding her body in the woods.

Graber, 66, was reported missing Nov. 2 and her body was later found in Chautauqua Park. According to court documents, authorities said she suffered “inflicted trauma to the head" and her body was found under a tarp, wheelbarrow and railroad ties.

A motive for the killing hasn’t been released but according to court documents, the teens schemed to kill the teacher, who taught at Fairfield High since 2012, over social media.

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