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Alisa Massaro, 20, who has pleaded guilty to lesser charges of
concealing a homicide and robbery, testified for the prosecution in
the trial of her former friend, Bethany McKee, also 20, who is
charged with first-degree murder.
The victims, Terrance Rankins and Eric Glover, both 22, were robbed
of $120 and strangled to death in a duplex in Joliet on January 9,
2013. Police have alleged the killers also planned to dismember the
victims' bodies.
Joshua Miner, 26, and Adam Landerman, 21, are also charged in the
murders but will be tried separately.
In the fourth day of the trial, which is expected to conclude early
next week, Massaro spoke in whispers and recounted how she, McKee,
Miner and Landerman planned to rob Rankins, who they believed was
flush with cash from allegedly dealing drugs.
McKee did not visibly react to her former friend's testimony.
Massaro said they had invited Rankins over, and he arrived with his
friend Glover.
After an hour of drinking tequila, Massaro said, her
on-again-off-again boyfriend Miner made a slitting motion across his
throat.
"Josh had given me the signal so we could get out of the way and do
what they needed to do," Massaro said.
She said she went outside the duplex, but later returned and heard
noises from the room where the men were. That was when she heard
Miner saying, "Die, die," Massaro said.
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"I was convinced the robbery was going to happen," Massaro said.
"But I didn't think anyone was going to get hurt."
She admitted lying to the police because she was scared and wanted
to protect Miner, who had recently been released from jail after
serving time for burglary.
McKee's defense attorney read portions of a letter Massaro wrote to
her stepfather from jail, which said, "I'm not dumb enough to be in
jail for the rest of my life."
Massaro testified in exchange for a plea deal under which she has
been sentenced to 10 years in prison but will be eligible for
release in less than four years.
(Reporting by Dawn Reiss in Joliet, Ill.; Editing by Fiona Ortiz,
Mary Wisniewski and Mohammad Zargham)
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