A man responsible for two vicious murders in a Chicago suburb over a decade ago has been sentenced to life in prison by a Brown County Circuit Judge for murdering his cellmate in 2024.
Joshua Miner, 36, received a life sentence after pleading guilty to strangling Andrew Ortega, a cellmate at Western Illinois Correctional Center, on August 26, 2024.
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According to ABC-7 in Chicago, 44-year-old Andrew Ortega of Chicago was discovered dead in his jail cell, which he shared with Miner, in Western Illinois Correctional Facility in Mt. Sterling on August 26, 2024. According to Brown County Sheriff and Coroner Justin Oliver, Ortega was strangled overnight, with an “undershirt/tank top arm strapped tightly around [his] neck as a ligature.”
Chicago media called Miner the “Hickory Street Murderer” from Joliet. Miner and three others were charged in 2013 with luring two men, 22-year-old acquaintances Eric Glover and Terrance Rankins, into a Joliet residence where they were robbed, strangled, and had their bodies mutilated, reportedly for sport. Miner was later found guilty and condemned to life in prison without parole. Ortega was spending time for theft and breaking the terms of his probation.
The Ortega family and ABC7 had previously petitioned for months for information about Ortega’s death but were routinely denied information or access to interviewees. According to jail records, Miner was sent to Menard Correctional Facility soon after Ortega died. Since 2020, there have been four other documented in-custody deaths at Western Illinois Correctional Center. Several such occurrences have left the public with little or no information.
According to ABC7, on the morning of August 26, WICC guards discovered Ortega dead in his cell after he had missed breakfast. Pixelated footage of Ortega being strangled in his cell has been released in the case. Guards looking in his cell may have been fooled by shoes, slacks, and a shirt filled with cushions that made Ortega appear to be sleeping on his top bed. Investigators suspected Miner staged the cell bunk to throw off the guards during their cell checks. It would take another 5 months before the Brown County State’s Attorney’s Office filed charges against Miner in the case. This was despite Miner admitting to killing Ortega on the day his body was discovered, according to interview transcripts examined by ABC7.
On Monday, August 18, Brown County Judge Jerry Hooker condemned Miner to consecutive natural life sentences in jail without parole.
