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Victim's Mother Awaits Verdict In Yarbrough's Second Murder Trial
Posted Monday, November 2, 2009 ; 05:15 PM | View Comments | Post Comment
Updated Tuesday, November 3, 2009; 07:47 AM


Aaron Land
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A jury heard closing arguments and started deliberations Monday in the retrial of a man accused of kidnapping and killing two Franciscan University of Steubenville students back in 1999. Deliberations are scheduled to resume at 11 a.m. Tuesday.

By Crissy Clutter
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Washington, Pa. -- A Washington County jury is scheduled to continue deliberating Tuesday in Terrell Yarbrough's second murder trial, trying to reach a verdict on charges that the Pittsburgh man killed two Franciscan University students.

Early Tuesday morning, the jury told the judge they wanted to go home. Meanwhile, both of the victim's families waited for a verdict.

Land's mother, Kathleen O'Hara, said in the prosecution's closing argument, Assistant District Attorney Mike Lucas said Yarbough is a cold-blooded killer who kept one of the victim's rosaries and wore it even after Brian Muha and Aaron Land were robbed, kidnapped, and then later murdered.

"It's pretty brutal to live through this again and to have testimony today, especially having to see the death scene where Aaron and Brian's bodies were found, it was pretty graphic and that was very difficult," said Land's mother, Kathleen O'Hara.

Aaron Land would have been 31-years-old this year, but he was killed in May 1999 when he and his roommate, Muha, were taken from their apartment in Steubenville, Ohio, and allegedly taken to Robinson Township, Pennsylvania where they were shot to death.

The suspected gunman, Terrell Yarbrough, is on trial for the second time.

"When I got the call from the victims I didn't even know they were reviewing it was completely out of the blue, before Christmas, and everything was turned upside down," said O'Hara.

Yarbrough actually was convicted once before and sentenced to death in Ohio. That's where the crime began, but since Aaron and Brian died across the border in Pennsylvania the Ohio Supreme Court ruled five years ago, that's where the trial should actually be.

A jury deliberated for more than six hours Monday night at the Washington County Courthouse.

O'Hara is now a psychotherapist, she's written a book about loss, to help herself recover, and she said she thought about not going to the trial, but she's made the five hour trip even though it brings back 10 years of pain.

"It makes me feel like my son is laying in the ground and Terrell Yarbrough is alive and lying with absolutely no remorse what so ever for anything he did," said O'Hara.

In 2006, the Washington County District Attorney said he would prosecute both Yarbrough and co-conspirator Nathan Herring on homicide charges in Pennsylvania.

Deliberations are set to resume at 11 a.m. Tuesday.

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GOD BLESS THE FAMILY OF THE VICTIM
11/3/09 at 10:12 AM
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PLEASE GOD- BLESS THE FAMILY OF THE VICTIM. WE MUST BELIEVE IN JUSTICE AND HOPEFULLY THE JURY WILL SEE THROUGH THE CHAOS AND LIES. WHILE NOT PERFECT, OUR SYSTEM IS THE BEST IN THE WORLD.

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