Nightmare On Hickory Life Sentence 'Unconscionable': McKee's Lawyers

JOLIET, IL — Even though Bethany McKee did not commit the "Nightmare On Hickory Street" strangulation murders of Terrance Rankins and Eric Glover, the Shorewood native is serving a life sentence at the Illinois Department of Corrections. Now 28, McKee has made a remarkable turnaround of her life, according to lawyers at the Illinois Prison Project.

And that's partly why reducing McKee's sentence for her double murder conviction has become one of the top priorities for McKee's lawyers, Rachel White-Domain and Sarah Free at the grant-funded Illinois Prison Project in Chicago.

They are committed to regaining McKee's freedom, and trying to accomplish that goal in 2023.

"First and foremost, we do not intend for our advocacy for Bethany, who was also the victim of violence during her life, to minimize the tragedy that two young men lost their lives," White-Domain told Joliet Patch during last week's interview. "The fact is that Bethany was not in the room when these young men were tragically killed. When she came back in the room and learned what had happened for the first time, she was devastated and terrified. She knew that she could become the next victim."

The Illinois Prison Project is trying to convince Will County Judge Sarah Jones to allow for an evidentiary hearing on their efforts to reduce McKee's mandatory life in prison sentence. The next hearing for McKee's case at the Will County Courthouse is set for late March.

"The place we are in (right now) is post-conviction. Our hope and expectation is we don't want to get tied down with technicalities," White-Domain told Patch, "but that we get to tell her whole story. I absolutely feel optimistic. I feel once this story is told, anybody would understand."

Even though Josh Miner and Adam Landerman the ones who strangled the Hickory Street murder victims, Rankins and Glover, both 22, McKee was also found guilty under an accountability theory presented by the Will County State's Attorney's Office.

McKee was only 18 years old at the time of her first-degree murder arrest by Joliet police. She also had a young daughter. The house where the Nightmare on Hickory Street murders happened was owned by Alisa Massaro's father. Alisa Massaro and McKee had been best friends since they were little girls. Unlike McKee, Massaro pleaded guilty to a reduced felony charge and she got out of prison in 2018, after only five years of incarceration.

"Bethany’s life sentence in these circumstances is unconscionable," White-Domain told Patch last week. "Judge Kinney thought a life sentence was 'inappropriate' for Bethany, and we believe that anyone who has all of the information about Bethany's story would agree with him."

Sentencing Judge Didn't Want To Give McKee Life Prison Term

At McKee's November 2014 sentencing, now-retired Will County Judge Gerald Kinney did not want to impose a life prison term for McKee, but he was obligated to do so, the Illinois Prison Project attorneys have emphasized in their petition for executive clemency.

“The way the law is written, I really have no authority,” Judge Kinney said, citing his lack of sentencing options for McKee, whom he found guilty in August of 2014. The double murder conviction meant an automatic life sentence for McKee, Kinney said, adding he’d prefer to give her 40 years, or something in the range of 20 to 60 years.

“Mandatory sentencing is just inappropriate,” Judge Kinney declared in 2014.

In addition to pursuing a post-conviction appeal in Will County, the Illinois Prison Project has a separate executive clemency petition in front of Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker.

With a clemency petition, there's no telling when the governor will rule on the request. Generally, a decision takes between two and four years, according to the Illinois Prison Project.

According to their filing before Judge Jones in Will County, "Bethany McKee is a survivor of rape, sex trafficking and physical abuse — all during her childhood. At age 17, she became a single mother. At age 18, she was arrested and sentenced to life in prison.

"No one argues that Bethany wanted or even knew that Eric Glover and Terrance Rankins would be killed. While Bethany is remorseful, a life sentence in this case is widely inconsistent with principles of justice and mercy. The courts, however, have refused to correct this injustice, upholding Bethany's sentence on appeal and rejecting her post-conviction petition at the first stage."

The Illinois Prison Project revealed that "Bethany is seeking a commutation of her life sentence to time served, or in the alternative, to a period of 20 years of 100 percent, which would not result in her release until January 10, 2033.

"Bethany is a brilliant and kind person who has spent her incarceration working to understand her past trauma and remain a supportive mother to her now 10-year-old daughter. She deserves mercy as it is properly bestowed through the clemency process," argued McKee's lawyer, White-Domain.

Bethany McKee's Trial

On Jan. 10, 2013, Joliet police were sent to 1121 Hickory Street where they arrested Alisa Massaro, Miner and Landerman. The officers found the dead bodies of Rankins and Glover on top of plastic garbage bags spread on the floor. Miner told Joliet police he killed one of the victims and that Landerman killed the other victim.

At the time of those arrests, McKee was driving toward Kankakee. Upon being arrested, she gave a long statement to Kankakee police, describing a conversation between Miner and Landerman regarding a "plan" to rob Rankins and Glover.

"I really did think that they were f****** around," McKee told police. "They said, 'Oh, we can just beat them up and kill them and we can get the money because they knew he had a lot of money. I seriously thought ... I knew Josh was crazy. Adam, no."

One police officer remarked that McKee knew they were going to do this.

"No," McKee answered. "I didn't know it was for real. I did not think that that was gonna happen ... when you talk about things, it's joking. I thought they were joking ... Josh and Adam ... So Josh goes, 'Well, if he doesn't have a cigarette ... we're just gonna go get his ass. I was like, oh my God, whatever. And he was like, yeah, for real. He's like, yeah, we're really gonna do this. He was like, 'Adam, you got me?' And Adam was like, 'Yeah.' I'm like 'bulls**t.' Me and Alissa did not really believe that that was gonna happen."

'Josh Miner Would Have Made Bethany McKee His 3rd Murder Victim'

According to the Illinois Prison Project's filings, McKee finally took her little girl and left the room and went downstairs. She later left the Nightmare on Hickory Street house and dropped her daughter off at a friend's home. When she returned, she learned Glover and Rankins were slain.

"In her statement, Bethany also describes, horrifically, that her co-defendants later hit and kicked the bodies repeatedly and discussed how to dispose of them. During that time, Bethany was terrified for her own life and believed that if she reported what had happened, she would become Adam and Josh's third victim. In her statement, she also admits that she reluctantly kicked one of the bodies herself, but says that she did so because Josh threatened her."

"Because I was scared," McKee told the Kankakee detective. "Josh was like, 'well, you have to kick him.' He's like, 'otherwise we're gonna have a problem.'"

When the detective asked McKee what would have happened, if she tried to stop them from kicking the bodies, she replied, "All three of us would have been dead. I know how Josh is ... Alissa has told me about him. And everything else everybody has told me about him. He is crazy. I know the stuff he can do. I know I would have been dead if I would have stopped it."

The post-conviction filing notes that Massaro served as a prosecution witness against her best friend during McKee's trial. On the night of the murders, the four were drinking alcohol and smoking cigarettes but ran out and robbery became the last decision made by the group. McKee testified that all four of them "participated" in that discussion.

"However, she could not recall any specific statement that Bethany made," the Illinois Prison Project lawyers argue on McKee's behalf. "Alisa testified that the plan was for Adam and Joshua to commit the robbery. She testified that about an hour after the victims arrived, Josh gave her a signal, which she demonstrated as a hand across the throat gesture. She testified that the signal meant that she and Bethany should get out of the way and let them do what they had to do. She then testified, 'I tried to persuade Bethany to come with me, to leave the room.'"

When the teenage girls went downstairs, Massaro's father, Phillip, was sleeping on his couch and he woke up when he heard a loud noise from upstairs. Alisa Massaro testified she told her father that a TV fell and two dudes were up there. About five to 10 minutes later, she and McKee left to bring McKee's daughter to the babysitter.

Bethany McKee 'Is No Longer Weak-Minded'

These days, the 28-year-old McKee continues to serve out her life prison sentence in Lincoln, Illlinois, at the Logan Correctional Center near Springfield.

The Logan Correctional Center is 30 miles north of Springfield and this is where McKee has transformed her life, according to her Illinois Prison Project lawyers.

"I am no longer weak-minded and instead I look forward to life's struggles so that I may overcome them in the right ways, finally, and grow even more," McKee wrote in an essay called "The Person I Am Today."

McKee's essay includes the following self-assessment: "Thankfully, this time I've been incarcerated has taught me many things about myself as well."

According to White-Domain, "Bethany is constantly thinking of different activities that she and her daughter can do together over the phone like playing games or working on homework and she says that 'those are the moments that make me feel like a mom' ... Right now, they are reading the Harry Potter series. Recently, (her daughter) and Bethany formed a plan to help each other learn about various figures in the Bible, agreeing to each research one figure and then report back to the other ... Bethany's father also speaks to the remorse he has witnessed in his daughter, as well as her efforts to educate her daughter so that (she) won't make the same mistakes that Bethany did."

During her imprisonment, McKee has completed 21 Bible study courses including from the American Bible Academy, Prisoners for Christ Outreach Ministries and Rhema Correspondence Bible School and she has consistently maintained an A grade across eight of her American Bible Academy courses.

"Faith is important to Bethany's life because it helps teach her 'how to be a good citizen and a good person,'" according to her lawyer.

In a self-reflection writing, McKee wrote, "It has helped me to be able to endure and preserve through all these trials because without that I wouldn't have made it at all ... The groups like Depression and Anger Management teaches certain skills, but having a relationship with God teaches you how to put all of that into work and it shows the reward you get out of it, and that's really what helped build me. It helped me build myself. And it showed me how to have true genuine friendships with other people. God taught me that."

Check back this week for another Joliet Patch story, focusing on Bethany McKee's job assignments in prison including her work as a certified trainer for the Helping Paws program that trains service dogs for people with disabilities. That story will also examine McKee's previously undiagnosed autism that prevented her from understanding Miner and Landerman's plan to rob Glover and Rankins was for real, according to the Illinois Prison Project.

Related Joliet Patch coverage:

Nightmare On Hickory Street Murders, 10 Year Anniversary For Joliet

'With Some Reluctance,' Judge Gives Nightmare on Hickory St. Killer McKee Life in Prison

Nightmare On Hickory St. Murders Snitch Getting Out Of Prison

Nightmare On Hickory: Joliet Wins FOIA Lawsuit Against Hosey