Psychologist: 1 defendant is mildly retarded

The Ohio Supreme Court
overturned the first conviction in 2004.

WASHINGTON, Pa. (AP) — A man scheduled to be tried for a second time in the shooting deaths of two Ohio college students eight years ago is mildly mentally retarded, a psychologist said.

Ohio psychologist David Hammer testified Monday that Terrell Yarbrough, 27, formerly of Pittsburgh, has an IQ ranging from 65 to 75 and never got the help needed to expand his mental capacity past the fourth grade.

Washington County, Pa., prosecutor John Pettit is seeking the death penalty against Yarbrough in the 1999 killings of Franciscan University students Aaron Land, 20, of Philadelphia, and Brian Muha, 18, of Westerville, Ohio. Land and Muha were kidnapped from their Steubenville, Ohio, home and driven to Robinson Township, where they were shot, prosecutors said.

An Ohio jury earlier convicted Yarbrough and another man, Nathan Herring, in the slayings. Yarbrough was sentenced to death and Herring to life in prison.

But the Ohio Supreme Court in December 2004 overturned Yarbrough’s murder conviction, saying the men were tried in the wrong state. An Ohio judge then tossed out Herring’s life sentence.

Hammer, who first met Yarbrough in 2001, said he hasn’t changed his mind about Yarbrough’s mental capacity. He said Yarbrough has “cultural-familial retardation” attributed to biological, social and psychological factors.

A district judge on Monday gave Pettit permission to have Yarbrough examined by another psychologist.

Pettit has said he wants to seek the death penalty against Herring, too.

The U.S. Supreme Court in 2002 banned the execution of mentally retarded people.