Jeremy Everett Goodale

Defense argued Thursday for proceedings to be moved to juvenile court for one of the teenagers charged in the murder of Fairfield teacher Nohema Graber.

A hearing on 17-year-old Jeremy Everett Goodale’s request to transfer jurisdiction from adult court was held before District Court Judge Shawn Showers. Iowa City-based psychologist Dr. Brenda Payne and Juvenile Probation Officer Karen Dennler were questioned by the defense and the State to determine whether Goodale would have the best chance at rehabilitation in a juvenile or adult court system. The State pointed out that while the juvenile detention system has treatment programs for some offenses, it does not have a homicide treatment program. They also argued that by the time Goodale would be found guilty and sentenced in juvenile court, it would be a small number of months until he leaves the system either by high school diploma or aging out. Jefferson County Attorney Chauncey Moulding commented that Payne either has a warped view of how the court system works, or was just saying what she was hired by the defense to say, “Two boys that develop a grievance against a teacher and develop a plan and execute that plan and that results in that teacher’s death. The consequences for those considerations and those acts is 18 months incarceration in a juvenile system and then released without supervision… if that’s what the programming is for such a heinous act, it would be open season on teachers in this country.”

Judge Showers ended the hearing announcing that he will issue a written decision on the request. A hearing on 16-year-old Willard Noble Chaiden Miller’s request to transfer jurisdiction is scheduled for May 6th. Proceedings on these cases were recently paused when the defendants filed a request to the Iowa Supreme Court to review Showers’ denial of excluding the public from the hearings to transfer jurisdiction, which the supreme court denied.