Defense opening: 'Boo' was triggerman

WASHINGTON, Pa. - In his opening statement Monday in Judge John DiSalle's courtroom, Defense Attorney Kenneth Haber said his client Terrell Yarbrough wasn't the one who shot and killed two Franciscan University of Steubenville students in May 1999, and that it was his companion, Nathan "Boo" Herring.

Yarbrough, 28, of Pittsburgh, is charged in Washington County Common Pleas Court with two counts of criminal homicide and two counts of conspiracy to commit criminal homicide in the deaths of Aaron Land, 20, of Philadelphia, and Brian Muha, 18, of Westerville, Ohio.

Michael Lucas, Washington County Assistant District Attorney, told the jury that, whether or not Yarbrough pulled the trigger, if he assisted or aided in the murders, he also was guilty under the law.

Yarbrough and Herring both were found guilty of the kidnap-slayings in Jefferson County, but their murder convictions were overturned by the Ohio Supreme Court, which found that the murders took place in Pennsylvania. Land's and Muha's bodies were found on a hillside off U.S. Route 22, near the Bavington exit in Robinson Township, Pa.

Yarbrough also was convicted of aggravated robbery, kidnapping, gross sexual imposition and theft and was sentenced to 59 years in prison in Jefferson County. The state supreme court allowed those charges to stand.

Herring was sentenced to life in prison for the murders, which was vacated, and 65 years for other charges, which also stood. His murder trial in Washington County is pending.

A Jefferson County jury sentenced Yarbrough to death, but the sentence was vacated with the conviction. If he is convicted in Washington County, the Washington County jury may either sentence him to death or life in prison without the possiblity of parole.

(Wallace-Minger can be contacted at swallace@pafocus.com)

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