STEUBENVILLE – One of two men convicted in the 1999 murder of two Franciscan University of Steubenville students appeared in a Jefferson County courtroom on Wednesday for a brief hearing based on a 7th District Court of Appeals decision.

The cases of Nathan Herring, 34, who was in court on Wednesday, and Terrell Yarbrough, 34, have been the subject of appellate court action since their convictions.

The two university students, Aaron Land, 20, of Philadelphia and Brian Muha, 18, of Westerville, Ohio, were kidnapped in 1999 from their McDowell Avenue apartment in Steubenville and driven in Muha’s stolen Chevrolet Blazer to a remote section of U.S. Route 22 in Robinson Township, Pa., led up a hill and each shot once in the head.

Herring, a Steubenville resident, and Yarbrough were convicted of the murders in Jefferson County, but the Ohio Supreme Court overturned the convictions in December 2004, saying Pennsylvania had jurisdiction in the case. Ohio law since has been changed to allow the prosecution of crimes beginning in Ohio but ending with a killing in another state.

Yarbrough was convicted in Washington, Pa., of the murders and was sentenced to life in prison in November 2009. Herring pleaded guilty to the murders and also was sentenced to life in prison in July 2010.

Yarbrough and Herring were convicted of other crimes in Ohio and the Ohio Supreme Court let those sentences stand. Yarbrough was sentenced to 59 years in prison and Herring was sentenced to 65 years. The murder sentences in Pennsylvania will be served concurrently to the Ohio sentences.

The court of appeals ruled Jefferson County Common Pleas Judge Joseph Bruzzese Jr. kept the firearm specifications to the aggravated murder charges for Herring, totaling six years, in his original sentencing. The court of appeals vacated the six years, resulting in Herring having to spend 59 years in an Ohio prison.

Bruzzese on Wednesday told Herring he will be on parole for a mandatory five years if he ever is released from prison. The judge told Herring it probably won’t matter because, if he is ever released from an Ohio prison, he will have to go to Pennsylvania to serve the life sentence.

Herring is serving his time at the Lake Erie Correction Institution in Conneaut.

Herring again raised the issue that Jefferson County didn’t have jurisdiction on the other crimes he was convicted of here, including aggravated robbery, aggravated burglary, kidnapping and gross sexual imposition.

The court of appeals already rejected Herring’s argument that Jefferson County lacked jurisdiction because the crimes started in Ohio and ended in Pennsylvania.

Bruzzese scheduled a hearing at 8:30 a.m. on Friday to hear Herring’s arguments on the jurisdictional issue.

In other court actions on Wednesday:

– Lawrence R. Hicks, 26, of Steubenville was sentenced by Bruzzese to 12 months in prison after Hicks pleaded guilty to two counts of trafficking in heroin and one count of possession of heroin.

The county’s drug task force made two controlled buys from Hicks at Apartment F, 711 Market St., on Jan. 29 and Feb. 3. The apartment was raided by the drug task force on Feb. 4 and Hicks was found to be in possession of heroin.

County Prosecutor Jane Hanlin said Hicks should get the maximum sentence of 12 months in prison because he twice previously had been convicted of drug possession.

– Brianna Cash, 32, of 510 Cedar Ave. was sentenced by Bruzzese to six months in the Eastern Ohio Correction Center after Cash pleaded guilty to two counts of theft.

Cash, who was working at a nursing home facility, stole three checks from an 85-year-old man and gave the checks to two other people. The two other people cashed the checks for $1,000.