As police questioned him about how he allegedly strangled a Joliet man, Joshua Miner demonstrated on a detective how he punched his alleged victim in the face and then placed him in a stranglehold.
The 26-year-old Joliet man later told a Joliet police detective he has experience in bare-knuckle fighting and wrestling adding that a few of his opponents even passed out from his strangleholds.
“I knocked out a few people, more than 10 times,” Miner told police in a videotaped statement played Wednesday during his murder trial.
Miner is one of four people charged in the January 2013 strangulations of Eric Glover and Terrance Rankins, both 22 and of Joliet. Prosecutors have said the two men were killed during a robbery planned by Miner and his friends.
Last month, Will County Judge Gerald Kinney — who also is hearing Miner’s case – ruled Bethany McKee was guilty of the murders. Prosecutors claimed the 20-year-old Shorewood woman suggested contacting Rankins when the four friends were discussing ways to get money.
The victims were robbed, netting the group $120, which they used to buy cigarettes, gas and drugs, prosecutors said.
Alisa Massaro, 20, of Joliet who was Miner’s girlfriend at the time, pleaded guilty in May to lesser charges and agreed to testify against the other three in exchange for a 10-year sentence. Glover and Rankins were found dead in Massaro’s Hickory Street apartment.
Adam Landerman, 21, the son of a Joliet police officer, remains in jail awaiting trial.
Prosecutors played nearly two hours of Miner’s videotaped statement Wednesday in court. Another 90 minutes of his statement remains and could be shown as early as Thursday.
Videotape played Wednesday showed Miner telling police that Glover and Rankins were attacked after Rankins tried to rape McKee. Prosecutors have said the four agreed to use that as a cover story prior to their arrests.
Miner told police he began punching Rankins after he allegedly pulled off McKee’s pants and McKee told him to stop. He told police he was upset that Massaro was upset about what was happening and that he thought it was “gross” that Rankins, who was black, was trying to have sex with McKee, who is white.
“I just snapped and I went at him,” Miner told detectives.
When Glover tried to intervene and kicked Miner in the head, Miner told detectives that was when he “went completely out of whack.”
He told detectives he strangled Rankins and Landerman strangled Glover.
“I’m on parole,” Miner told detectives. “I’m looking at 20 to life now.”
“I’m going to die in prison,” Miner later says.
He told police the four drank alcohol to “calm down” and he placed plastic grocery bags over the victims’ heads because McKee and Massaro didn’t want to see their faces.
He told police he and the others discussed ways to get rid of the bodies. The four discussed staging an accident in one victim’s car but settled on calling McKee’s father for help in disposing of the bodies. McKee’s father contacted police after his daughter called for his help.
