First Hickory Street killings trial begins

JOLIET – The shoes were the first thing Officer Brian Lanton saw when the door opened.

Then he saw the rest of the body.

Lanton testified Monday in the trial of Bethany McKee, who, along with Joshua Miner and Adam Landerman, is accused of killing Terrence Rankins and Eric Glover, both 22, on Jan. 10, 2013, in the Hickory Street residence of her friend, Alisa Massaro.

Lanton said the second-floor apartment where the deaths occurred has a kitchenette at the door by the stairs, which he and Officer Bruce Trevillian opened Jan. 10, 2013, to see "a pair of Air Jordans, soles up, on the feet of a body ... laying on the kitchenette floor."

Lanton testified the man's body had been set on black plastic garbage bags and a plastic shopping bag had been placed over the victim's head. Looking down the hall, the officers could see another victim laying on a bedroom floor, also with a plastic bag on his head.

"I then encountered an individual in the back bedroom sitting on a couch smoking a cigarette," Trevillian testified. When the officer ordered him to stand up and show his hands, Joshua Miner told him "he'd killed the guy in the kitchen and Adam [Landerman] killed the guy in the bedroom," Trevillian said.

Prosecutors have said McKee and Alisa Massaro lured the men to the 1100 block of North Hickory Street with plans to rob them of money and drugs. Landerman and Miner allegedly strangled the victims to death.

All four suspects were initially charged with murder, but Massaro agreed to plead guilty to lesser charges and testify against the others. She was sentenced to 10 years in prison for robbery and concealing a homicide.

Landerman and Miner are awaiting separate trials.

Officer Michael DeVito testified Monday he searched the basement and saw Landerman's feet sticking out from behind some wooden paneling propped behind a doorway. DeVito said Landerman ignored his commands to come out until another officer came to back him up.

"He turned toward me with a grin on his face," DeVito said.

Assistant Will County State's Attorney Tricia McKenna said Monday that McKee "desperately needed money" after being kicked out of her parents house. Rankins had purchased alcohol for the women before and they saw he had "a large amount of cash," McKenna said.

Rankins arrived with his friend Eric Glover "expecting to party with" the two women, but at a pre-arranged signal between them, the women left the room and Miner and Landerman attacked, McKenna said.

"Bethany saw and heard Terrence Rankins ask ... 'Why are you doing this to me?' and did nothing," McKenna told Judge Gerald Kinney.

The robbers allegedly got $120 they used for gas, cigarettes and cocaine.

Defense attorney Chuck Bretz said there is no physical evidence McKee was involved in killing Glover and Rankins and she was merely present at the scene of the crime.

"[McKee] could've been charged with obstructing justice or concealing a homicide," but did not aid in the fatal robbery, Bretz said.

Police went to Massaro's house due to a police dispatch called made by Bethany's father that was played in court Monday. On the tape, William McKee asked for an officer to come to his house because he had information Bethany was involved in a serious crime and hoped he was "doing the right thing."

"She came to me and [said] there are two black males dead in a bathtub upstairs and ... need my help to show her and the others how to cut up bodies," William McKee said during the call.

Nicole Jones, Eric Glover's mother, left the courtroom with tears in her eyes after the call was played.

The trial's first witness was McKee's school friend Jennifer Ortega who was questioned for more than an hour about a Facebook conversation they had a week before the Jan. 10, 2013, slayings in which McKee wanted suggestions to get money.

The trial is scheduled to continue Tuesday.