FAIRFIELD – One of the Fairfield teens who pleaded guilty to murder said he wishes he could “go back in time and stop myself.”

Those were the words of Jeremy Goodale, who spoke Wednesday in the Jefferson County Courthouse in his sentencing hearing for the murder of Fairfield High School Spanish teacher Nohema Graber in 2021. Goodale and co-conspirator Chaiden Miller pleaded guilty to the murder earlier this year. Both of them were 16 at the time of the murder, but because of the severity of the offense, their cases are in adult court.

“I offer my sincerest apologies to the Graber family, but I know my words will never be enough,” Goodale said. “What I’ve taken can never be replaced.”

Goodale went on to say he “can’t comprehend losing a loved one in such an awful way.”

“I’m sorry I didn’t stop this from happening in the first place,” he said. “I’m understanding now that Mrs. Graber meant so much to so many people. She was a support to the community and those close to her, and she was a caregiver to her family, to her children and to her own husband.”

Before Goodale stood to offer his remarks, the defense called a couple of Goodale’s family members to testify, and then called psychologist Mark Cunningham to speak to Goodale’s “immaturity.”

Goodale’s father, Dean Goodale, and his oldest sister, Jackie, testified Tuesday. They spoke to Jeremy’s broken home life resulting from his parents’ divorce, and the limited contact Jeremy had with his mother, Christine.

“His mom kind of abandoned him,” Dean said.

Dean testified that interpersonal relationships were important to Jeremy, and he struggled when the pandemic hit and his classes moved online.

“I was a single parent, I had to provide for the family, and I had to leave a 14-year-old kid alone by himself,” Dean said. “Since he had to be on the internet, I couldn’t keep him from playing video games, and that’s pretty much what he did all day.”

Dean said this set in motion a “terrible cycle of reprimand” in which he set expectations for Jeremy, but those expectations were not met.

“The relationship was really rough,” Dean said.

Jackie, who is 10 years older than Jeremy, testified that their home life was not easy. Jeremy was 5 when his parents separated, and after that Jeremy split time between his mom’s house in Fairfield and his dad’s farm. Jackie said she did not have a good relationship with her mom’s new boyfriend, and when Jackie was 16, she got kicked out of the house.

Jackie testified that she and her son moved back to the farm to live with Dean and Jeremy in August of 2021. She said that Jeremy was a good uncle, and enjoyed playing with her son.

During Cunningham’s testimony, he said he interviewed Jeremy and some of his sisters to get an idea about his mental state and typical behaviors. He spoke about how Jeremy had begun using marijuana in middle school, and that in high school Jeremy was using acid a couple of times per month, getting drunk on the weekends and smoking marijuana before school, during lunch and after school. This included using marijuana on the day of the murder, Nov. 2, 2021.

Cunningham said that this was relevant to the possibility of rehabilitating Goodale long-term, and thus relevant to his sentencing.

“His moral failures at age 16, because they’re rooted in his immaturity, are not predictive of what moral reasoning he’ll bring to bear at 25 or 30 or 35,” Cunningham said.

The Union will have more coverage on Goodale’s sentencing in the Friday edition of the Southeast Iowa Union.