Woman Gets 10 Years For Role In Gruesome Double Murder
JOLIET, Ill. (STMW) -- One of four people charged with murder in the grisly slayings of two Joliet men last year pleaded guilty Thursday to lesser charges and agreed to testify against her co-defendants.
Alisa Massaro, 20, of Joliet, pleaded to four felonies — two counts of robbery and two counts of concealment of a homicide — in the January 2013 killings of the Terrance Rankins and Eric Glover at Massaro's father's house, 1121 Hickory St. Prosecutors dropped a first-degree murder charge in exchange for her plea.
Will County Circuit Court Judge Gerald Kinney accepted the plea agreement, which includes a 10-year prison sentence and credit for the 16 months that Massaro has spent at the county jail awaiting trial.
Her attorney, George Lenard, said the plea deal was "based on evidence and her willingness to assist" the state in its case against her co-defendants — Joshua Miner, 25, Adam Landerman, 20, and Bethany McKee, 19 — who remain charged with murder. Kinney is expected to rule Friday on a prosecution motion that the three be tried separately.
"If the others go to trial, and if she's called as a witness, she will testify truthfully," Lenard said.
Under terms of the agreement, Massaro will serve consecutive two five-year terms for robbing each of the two victims and two three-year terms, to be served at the same time as the robbery sentences, for concealing the homicides. She also will have two years of supervision upon her release.
After making sure that Massaro understood the impact of pleading guilty, Kinney asked her if there was anything she wanted to say.
"No, your honor," she said.
Assistant State's Attorney Dan Walsh told the judge that the four lured Glover and Rankins, both 22, to the house, where they strangled them and took drugs and money from the bodies. Walsh said the men were killed "outside of her (Massaro's) presence," but that Massaro failed to notify police or her father, with whom she lived, of the deaths.
Landerman and Massaro continued to party and play video games with Miner after the killings, prosecutors said previously.
A source also confirmed previously for the Chicago Sun-Times that police reports, which contain conflicting interviews with the four, allege that Miner and Massaro had sex on the victims' bodies. The source also said the reports indicate that the group planned to dismember the bodies before disposing of them.
No one from Massaro's family was present in court, Lenard said. Rankins' family members attended the hearing but declined comment.
