WASHINGTON, Pa. -- A former Pittsburgh man convicted of fatally shooting two Ohio college students in 1999 was sentenced to life in prison Thursday.

Terrell Yarbrough, 29, was found guilty Tuesday of two counts of first-degree murder and conspiracy.

Yarbrough was sentenced to death in Ohio for the slayings of Franciscan University students Aaron Land, of Philadelphia, and Brian Muha, of Westerville, Ohio. But in 2004, the Ohio Supreme Court overturned the conviction, saying he and co-defendant Nathan Herring should have been tried in Pennsylvania.

Prosecutors said Land and Muha were kidnapped from their Steubenville, Ohio, home and driven to the Pittsburgh suburb of Robinson Township, where they were shot. That's why Yarbrough was retried in Washington County.

Defense attorney Kenneth Haber said he doesn't believe the evidence proves that his client was the triggerman, as the Ohio jury concluded. Haber instead told the jury that physical evidence shows Herring fired the fatal shot with his own pistol.

Herring will go to trial next.

The victims' families had said they are frustrated by the failure of the justice system to resolve the case quickly. The proceedings had been postponed nine times in Washington County since 2006.

"It became a joke, because of it constantly, constantly, being pushed back," said Muha's mother, Rachel Muha, of the Columbus suburb of Westerville, recalling e-mails sent to relatives about the postponements. "I think it's ridiculous."

Land's mother, Kathleen O'Hara, of Philadelphia, had said it would be difficult to see the defendant in court again.

"He is still alive, and my son is buried in the ground," she said.