A judge sentenced Jeremy Goodale, an Iowa teen who along with another student murdered their teacher, to life in prison Wednesday.
Video captured the 18-year-old, who apologized for the murder, sobbing with a bloody nose while the judge handed down his sentence. The teenager’s life sentence comes with the possibility of parole in 25 years, the New York Post (NYP) reported. (RELATED: Police Say They Found Body Of Missing Woman In Boyfriend’s Fridge: REPORT)
“Every day I wish I could go back and stop myself, prevent this loss and this pain that I’ve caused everyone,” Goodale told the court.
Willard Miller, 17, and Goodale bludgeoned their 66-year-old Spanish teacher to death with a bat in Nov. 2021.
Prosecutors allege Miller was the mastermind behind the murder, the New York Post reported. Miller was reportedly upset over a bad grade the Spanish teacher gave him and feared it might undermine his ability to participate in a study abroad program. Miller and Goodale then ambushed their teacher in a park she was known to frequent daily and killed her there, the outlet reported.
A judge sentenced Miller to life imprisonment with the possibility of parole in 35 years back in July.
On that occasion, the judge said if the state of Iowa allowed him to sentence Miller to life in prison without the chance for parole, “[t]hat would have been a serious consideration for me.”
Both Miller and Goodale pled guilty to first degree murder.