Two Iowa teens accused of killing their high school Spanish teacher last year will be tried as adults following a judge's denial of their request to move the case to juvenile court.
District Judge Shawn Showers ruled that 17-year-old Jeremy Goodale and 16-year-old Willard Miller will face their first-degree murder charges in adult court, denying their requests, the Associated Press reported.
Goodale and Miller are accused of savagely beating their 66-year-old Spanish teacher, Nohema Graber, to death in 2021. Graber taught at Fairfield High School in Iowa.
Showers said in his rulings that a juvenile court's punishments could not offer enough time for rehabilitation for the two.
"The juvenile court's dwindling time to rehabilitate the defendant is simply insufficient for a crime of such magnitude based on the nature of the offenses described in the minutes of testimony," Showers wrote.
If both were found guilty, they would be held in the system six months past their 19th birthdays.
Graber's body was found on Nov. 3 under a tarp, a wheelbarrow, and railroad ties at Fairfield city park. Police said it had been determined she was beaten to death with a baseball bat, according to the AP.
After an investigation, police arrested Goodale and Miller, who at the time were both 16 years old, charging them with first-degree murder in relation to the teacher's death.
The trial is set to take place in November of this year.
