Accused Hickory St. Killer Gets $5,000 from County for Expert Witness

One of the four young people charged with brutal murdering two men from Joliet is getting $5,000 to hire an expert witness—courtesy of the county.

Bethany McKee, 18, of Shorewood, got the go-ahead from Judge Gerald Kinney to pay a doctor to observe DNA testing when it is conducted at the Illinois State Police crime lab.

McKee is represented by a team of private attorneys—two of whom were on hand for the Wednesday morning hearing before Judge Kinney. Will County Assistant State's Attorney Marie Czech argued that if McKee can afford all those lawyers she should have to pay for her expert witnesses as well.

"She is paying for private counsel and asking the state to pay for an expert, as if she is an indigent," Czech said.

But one of McKee's attorneys, Neil Patel, said no one has brought up the issue of whether her lawyers are actually making money on the case. And even if he and his co-counsel are getting paid, Patel said, no one has introduced as evidence who is coughing up the cash.

Patel told Kinney that McKee, a young, single mother who at the time of her arrest lived with her parents, "has no savings, no assets."

"She's indigent, judge," Patel said.

Patel said the expert was going to cost between $5,000 and $6,000—and that was only to observe testing. Czech said it will undoubtedly cost even more for the doctor to produce reports and testify in court.

Kinney pointed out that a defense expert was needed to observe the DNA testing, which will result in destroying the tested evidence. He capped McKee's spending at $5,000 and said her lawyers will have to appear before him and plead their case if they want more money.

McKee was charged with three friends—Adam Landerman, 19, Alisa Massaro, 19, and Joshua Miner, 24—with the murders of Eric Glover and Terrance Rankins, both 24.

Police reports obtained exclusively by Patch revealed that Glover and Rankins were lured to the Hickory Street home Massaro shared with her father. Glover and Rankins believed they were going to have sex with Massaro and McKee, the reports said, but Landerman and Miner instead strangled the two men to death with their bare hands.

After rifling through Glover and Rankins' pockets for drugs and money, Landerman, Massaro, McKee and Miner drank and got high, the reports said. Massaro and Miner also admitted to having sex atop the bodies of the two men they allegedly killed, police said.

The next day, the four alleged killers hatched a plan to chop up the dead men, police said, and Landerman went so far to procure a blow torch, saw, bleach and rubber gloves for use in getting the job done.

But before the four could get to work, McKee's father, Bill McKee, called the Shorewood police and let them know his daughter had told him about the killings, the reports said.

Attorneys representing three of the four alleged killers have submitted affidavits on whether they were responsible for providing the police reports to Patch. Attorney Chuck Bretz, who also represents McKee, said his affidavit would be ready soon.

Judge Kinney postponed arguments from Bretz about whether Patch should be ordered to surrender the police reports. He also put off a bid by an attorney for an area newspaper to make the murder case file available to the public.

Attorney Seth Stern said he was ready to argue for the file to be unsealed but Joel Murphy, who is another lawyer in McKee's employ, told Judge Kinney that the matter is so complicated that he was still researching it Tuesday night.

"There are just numerous, numerous issues here," Murphy said.

Kinney gave Murphy another week and allowed Stern a week of his own to respond to Murphy.

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