Trial will be delayed for one of two Fairfield teens accused of killing Spanish teacher

FAIRFIELD — Trial for one Fairfield teen accused of killing his Spanish teacher last year will be delayed again.

Jeremy Everett Goodale, 17, asked the court to continue his case because the defense and prosecution recently received a file from the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, which contains information not previously provided by the prosecution.

The prosecution didn’t resist the continuance, so 8th Judicial District Judge Shawn Showers granted the delay and asked both sides to come up with a trial date to proposed by Nov. 21.

Goodale’s trial was previously moved to Scott County because of extensive pretrial publicity.

The other teen charged, Willard Chaiden Noble Miller, 16, has a trial set for March 6 in Council Bluffs, also due to extensive pretrial publicity.

Both teens are charged as adults with first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit a forcible felony in the slaying of Nohema Graber, 66, on Nov. 2, 2021.

No motive for the crime had been released but court documents filed before last week’s suppression hearing revealed Miller told investigators he was upset about receiving bad grades in Graber’s class and was worried it would lower his GPA.

His mother, during the hearing, admitted her son was struggling the class. In his other classes, he received A’s and B’s.

According to a search warrant unsealed in March, Miller told investigators he provided a wheelbarrow used to hide Graber’s body. A witness who lived near the park where Graber’s body was found told police he saw a male pushing a wheelbarrow toward the park about midnight Nov. 2, 2021.

The teens schemed over social media to kill Graber, who had taught at Fairfield High since 2012, according court documents. They monitored her routine before ambushing her on her daily walk in the park, killing her with a baseball bat and later hiding her body, according to court documents.

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