Less than two hours before capital murder defendant Justin Wolfe was to be released from the Prince William County jail, a federal appeals court intervened.

A federal court issued a ruling on Christmas Eve ordering Wolfe to be released within 10 days. At a Wednesday hearing in Prince William Circuit Court Judge Mary Grace O’Brien ordered that he be released at 5 p.m. Thursday.

But, late Thursday afternoon, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit granted the Virginia Attorney General’s request to stay the federal court order that would have freed Wolfe, pending an appeal of that order.

The high court in Richmond is slated to consider the appeal later this month.

Wolfe has been in prison for more than 11 years on charges stemming from the shooting death of Daniel Petrole, Jr. in 2001 in Bristow.

A jury in Prince William Circuit Court in 2002 convicted Wolfe of capital murder and other charges and sentenced him to death. In 2011, U.S. District Court Judge Raymond Jackson vacated the convictions, citing misconduct by prosecutors in Prince William County, and ordered that Wolfe be retried or released within 120 days. In part, Jackson found that prosecutors improperly withheld evidence in the first trial.

In that trial, Owen Barber, who admitted to killing Petrole, testified that Wolfe hired him to do the shooting. Barber later recanted his testimony and said Wolfe had nothing to do with the murder.

In his Dec. 24, 2012 order, which state attorneys are now appealing, Jackson ruled that the 120-day window had expired and Wolfe should be released within 10 days. Jackson also found that prosecutors had again acted improperly when they conducted a jailhouse interview with Barber in September.

After Wednesday's hearing ordering his release, Wolfe’s mother, Terri Steinberg, visibly shook as she cried and hugged supporters who had attended the hearing.

 “I’m very cautiously optimistic,” she said then. “Very hopeful. I’m just relieved. I hope this means we will get to bring him home.”

Steinberg had been on her way to the Prince William County jail when news came that the appeals court granted the stay.

Kimberley Irving, one of Wolfe’s attorneys, arrived at the jail to visit her client shortly after the appeals court ruling Thursday evening.

Irving said Wolfe’s attorneys were not pleased with the federal court’s ruling to issue the stay, but were hopeful the court would ultimately rule in their favor.

“We have every reason to believe they will,” she said. “Judge Jackson’s order was very clear.”