A Will County judge could change her decision on granting a new trial for a woman serving a life sentence for the 2013 Joliet murders known as “Nightmare on Hickory Street.”

Attorneys gave their last statements at Monday’s court hearing on the issue of whether Judge Sarah Jones was correct to grant a new trial for Bethany McKee, 31. McKee also was in court on Monday.

The decision will be made June 30.

In 2014, McKee was found legally accountable for the first-degree murders of Terrance Rankins and his friend, Eric Glover Jr., both 22.

Jones granted a new trial for McKee last February in light of a 2023 affidavit from Joshua Miner, 37, which claimed McKee was “never part of any conversation or plan to rob the victims or hurt them in any way.”

Miner and Adam Landerman, 32, are also serving life sentences for killing Rankins and Glover. Alisa Massaro, 32, evaded their fate by agreeing to plead guilty to lesser offenses in exchange for her testimony against the others.

Assistant State’s Attorney Collen Griffin told Jones on Monday she lacked authority to grant McKee a new trial because no evidentiary hearing was held to examine McKee’s claims, as required under the state’s Post-Conviction Hearing Act.

McKee’s attorney, Rachel Domain-White, said she did not object to an evidentiary hearing but she said those hearings should be held for all of McKee’s post-conviction claims.

“We have substantially pled all of those claims,” Domain-White said.

Jones took the matter under advisement and plans to issue a ruling on June 30.

Jones could uphold her ruling for a new trial or she could order an evidentiary hearing on McKee’s claims. If Jones decides on the latter, it may lead to Miner returning to the Will County Courthouse to testify.

In 2024, McKee filed an amended petition for post-conviction relief that requested a new trial based on alleged violations of her constitutional rights and new evidence in Miner’s 2023 affidavit.

In Jones’ Feb. 20 court ruling, she found Miner’s affidavit would “add to the information at trial potentially” and it has the “capability to change its outcome.”

In a court filing, Assistant State’s Attorney Colleen Griffin said prosecutors are entitled to show Miner is “not credible,” which means McKee should not receive a new trial.

Griffin said there are “discrepancies” in Miner’s affidavit and his claims are “in conflict” with what he told police and what McKee told police.

Griffin said prosecutors should question Miner about how committed a murder after providing the 2023 affidavit.

In 2025, Miner pleaded guilty to first-degree murder of killing an inmate at Western Illinois Correctional Center in Brown County, according to court records and ABC7 Chicago.

Griffin said Jones “took away” prosecutors ability to challenge the credibility of Miner and to show his testimony “would not change the outcome of any potential retrial based on the fact that he is a stone-cold murderer and liar.”

White-Domain responded to Griffin in a court filing that said she did not object to prosecutors testing Miner’s credibility.

“Mr. Miner is very candid in his admission of his propensity for lethal violence. We expect that, when elucidated at [the] evidentiary hearing, these and other facts will provide further support for this court’s holding that a new trial for Ms. McKee is necessary and proper,” White-Domain said.

But White-Domain also requested that Jones allow for an evidentiary hearing on the rest of McKee’s post-conviction claims.