By
The Associated Press
Two teenagers from southeastern Iowa, accused of murdering their Spanish teacher in high school, watched over their teacher and learned her routine before ambushing her and dragging her into the woods during their daily walk.
They later returned to better conceal his body, the county prosecutor in charge of the case said in court documents.
Those additional details about the death of Nohema Graber, killed in early November, were revealed in a presentation Thursday in the case of one of the 16-year-old suspects.
He is charged with murder and conspiracy
, crimes he allegedly committed with a classmate, also 16 years old.
The lawyers for both teenagers have asked the judge to transfer the case to the juvenile court.
Hearings on these applications are scheduled for January 27.
Two Iowa high school students charged with the death of a Spanish teacher
Nov. 5, 202100: 29
NBC News, Telemundo's sister network, does not typically name minors charged with a crime, even if they are tried as adults.
In court documents filed Thursday, Jefferson County prosecutor Chauncy Molding offered more information about Graber's death.
Graber, 66, was reported missing on November 2
, that same day her remains were found in a park.
Authorities confirmed that he suffered "head trauma" and that his body was found under a tarp, a wheelbarrow, and some railroad tracks in Chautauqua Park in the city of Fairfield, about 95 miles southeast of Des Moines, the state capital. Iowa.
[Two 16-year-olds are arrested in Iowa for the death of a Spanish teacher]
Investigators have yet to reveal a motive.
Both teens attended the Spanish class that Graber taught
at Fairfield High School, where he had taught since 2012.
Molding argued that one of the suspects should be treated as an adult because if he is tried and convicted by the juvenile justice system, he will be released at 18 years of age, that is, in less than 24 months.
"This prosecutor cannot think of any combination of programs at a juvenile facility in Iowa that can properly treat or rehabilitate the defendant if he is tried as a minor," he said.
Nohema GraberFacebook / Via NBC News
The lawyer for the other suspect made a similar request that Molding rejected for the same reasons.
The teens are being held in a juvenile facility on a $ 1 million cash bond while they await trial.
Both have pleaded not guilty.
[A Latina teacher from Georgia who had disappeared in Mexico was found dead]
Molding charged them as adults for the crimes of murder in the first degree and conspiracy to commit the crime.
In Iowa, the sentence for murder in the first degree is life imprisonment
if convicted as adults, although a decision by the Supreme Court of that state requires that minors be given the opportunity to be released when they receive that sentence.