December 12, 2024
Local News

Hickory Street witness: 'It sounded like somebody was wrestling'

JOLIET – Alisa Massaro's father was sleeping on the couch when he heard noise upstairs.

"It sounded like somebody was wrestling or something. I yelled up through the ceiling, 'Keep it down up there,'" Phil Massaro testified Wednesday morning.

Prosecutors say the "wrestling" was Terrence Rankins and Eric Glover being strangled to death by Joshua Miner and Adam Landerman on Jan. 10, 2013. Authorities alleged the two arranged with Alisa Massaro and Bethany McKee to lure the victims to Alisa's upstairs apartment and rob them.

Bethany McKee is charged with murder for her alleged role in the robbery and is on trial this week. Landerman and Miner are awaiting separate trials.

Alisa Massaro pleaded guilty to lesser charges and agreed to testify against the others. She is expected to testify later this week.

Phil Massaro said McKee and his daughter came downstairs right after the noises began and his daughter said a TV had fallen off the dresser.

"I asked who was up there and [Alisa] said 'Two dudes,'" he testified.

The noises stopped soon after and Phil Massaro went back to sleep on the couch and left for work the next morning without going upstairs.

Phil Massaro, who no longer lives in the Hickory Street residence, told Judge Gerald Kinney he didn't know anything was amiss until he returned home that evening to find it blocked by police.