Man convicted in retrial for 1999 slayings

WASHINGTON, Pa. - Jurors rejected claims by Terrell Yarbrough that he acted only as a lookout during the 1999 slayings of two Franciscan University students and convicted him yesterday of two counts of first-degree murder and conspiracy.

This morning, the same panel will begin deliberating whether Yarbrough, 29, should be executed or spend the rest of his life in prison for his role in the shooting deaths of Aaron Land, 20, of Philadelphia, and Brian Muha, 18, of Westerville, Ohio, both students at the Steubenville, Ohio, university.

"The good people of Washington County have given us justice, finally," said Land's mother, Kathleen O'Hara, a Philadelphia psychotherapist and grief counselor who wrote a book, A Grief Like No Other, about dealing with her sorrow.

Although Yarbrough, of East Liberty, Pa., and an accomplice, Nathan "Boo" Herring of Steubenville, were convicted nine years ago in Ohio of the killings, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled that the pair should be retried in Pennsylvania, where the students' bodies were found after the two went missing on Memorial Day 1999.

Herring's retrial has not been scheduled.

The men were accused of robbing and kidnapping Land and Muha at their off-campus apartment, then driving them several miles to Robinson, Washington County, in Muha's 1996 Chevrolet Blazer.

The students were marched up an embankment along Route 22 and shot to death. Their bodies were found beneath a thicket of roses.

The verdict capped off six days of testimony in Washington County Court from prosecution witnesses - mostly police and FBI scientists - who detailed physical evidence, including Yarbrough's fingerprints inside Muha's Blazer and blood spots on Yarbrough's clothing.

Prosecutors, led by county Assistant District Attorney Michael Lucas, presented evidence that Yarbrough was captured hours after the homicides wearing Muha's rosary beads as a "trophy."

Though Yarbrough did not testify, jurors heard him acknowledge being present during the homicides on three audiotapes made by Steubenville and Pittsburgh police, and they saw photos of Yarbrough and Herring trying to use Muha's bank card at an ATM at the University of Pittsburgh.

"Brian Muha and Aaron Land lost their lives for $200. That's all their lives were worth to him," said Lucas, referring to the amount Yarbrough said he was to be paid by Herring for being the lookout during the robbery.

On the audiotapes, Yarbrough said $15 was taken from the victims after they were dead.

Yarbrough's defense team called no witnesses. They painted Yarbrough as a borderline-retarded sidekick of Herring's who could not have formed the intent to kill because he had no gun.

They cited evidence that Herring was in possession of a .44-caliber revolver, and had testimony read into the record from psychologist Barbara Vey, who said Yarbrough protected her from an angry and aggressive Herring.

Several hours after the killings, the men stole a BMW belonging to Vey, who has since died. Her statements came during previous trials for the pair.

O'Hara said she wanted Yarbrough "punished to the fullest extent of the law," but said she wanted to leave the decision up to the jury. She said she might have been more sympathetic if Yarbrough had ever shown "one ounce of remorse."

Muha's mother, Rachel, and his brother, Chris, said they do not favor the death penalty, but they also do not plan to oppose District Attorney Steven Toprani, who said he "still has an obligation" to pursue it.