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In Fairfield murder case, Goodale receives new sentencing date; Miller appeals life sentence
FAIRFIELD — One of the two Fairfield teens who pleaded guilty to murder has appealed his sentence, while the other teen has a new sentencing date.
Willard Noble Chaiden Miller, 17, was sentenced to life in prison on July 6 for murdering 66-year-old Fairfield High School Spanish teacher Nohema Graber on Nov. 2, 2021. District Court Judge Shawn Showers ordered that Miller serve a minimum of 35 years before he is eligible for parole.
Miller’s legal defense team, consisting of Christine Branstad and Nathan Olson, has appealed Miller’s sentence to the Iowa Supreme Court.
The other Fairfield teen who confessed to murdering Graber, 18-year-old Jeremy Goodale, was supposed to be sentenced on Aug. 23, but now he will be sentenced on Nov. 14 at the Jefferson County Courthouse. His defense attorney, Allen L. Cook III, a public defender in Ottumwa, asked that the sentencing hearing be delayed to accommodate a witness the defense wished to call to testify, psychologist Mark Cunningham, who would not be available in August.
The state initially resisted the defense’s motion for a continuance because it wished to have Nohema Graber’s husband Paul Graber deliver a victim impact statement at the sentencing, and because of Paul’s poor health, the prosecution asked that the sentencing be held as soon as possible. However, Paul Graber died on June 29.
Prosecuting attorneys, Jefferson County Attorney Chauncey Moulding and Assistant Attorney General Scott Brown, filed a motion on July 14 that they were no longer resisting the defense’s motion to delay Goodale’s sentencing in light of Paul Graber’s death.
Paul Graber’s death was brought up by witnesses who delivered victim impact statement’s during Miller’s sentencing on July 6. Tom Graber, one of Paul’s brothers, said in his victim impact statement that Paul’s death at the age of 68 could be attributed to Miller and Goodale murdering his wife Nohema.
“Paul was deeply and understandably depressed by the murder of Nohema, and his life ended last week from the ravages of a metastatic cancer, that would have been caught and treated far sooner had Nohema been there,” Tom Graber said during his statement July 6. “I’m certain, from knowing Nohema for 35 years, that she would have made Paul see a doctor much sooner for the pain and skin lesions he began experiencing late last year.”
Call Andy Hallman at 641-575-0135 or email him at andy.hallman@southeastiowaunion.com
