Four years after a woman and her 14-month-old child were found strangled and smothered in their Lockport home, the trial of a Crestwood man accused of their murder began Tuesday.
Anthony Maggio, 29, faces six counts of first-degree murder for allegedly strangling 32-year-old Ashtin Eaton and asphyxiating his daughter, Hazel Bryant, on Oct. 2, 2020.
Maggio worked with Eaton at Amazon and had a romantic relationship with her, despite being engaged and having two other children, prosecutors said.
Prosecutor James Zanayad told a jury Tuesday that Maggio murdered Eaton and Bryant because he did not want to pay child support. Already in debt and chasing his dream of becoming a firefighter-paramedic in Cicero, Zanayad said, Maggio did not want to be burdened with child support payments that could impact his chances of getting hired.
Ashtin Eaton’s oldest daughter, Jessica Eaton, was 11-years-old at the time she discovered the bodies of her mother and sister in their apartment in the 900 block of South Hamilton Street in Lockport.
Jessica Eaton had woken up late for school the morning of Oct. 2, and immediately went to look for her mother, who she found laying on the floor of the kitchen, with cuts on her wrists, her skin blue and black and surrounded by a pool of blood, she told the jury Tuesday.
Although Eaton had cuts on her wrists, prosecutors allege Maggio strangled Eaton and staged her death to look like a suicide.
Charges against Maggio were filed in 2022, two years after the killings. After Maggio’s arrest, Lockport police told the Southtown the investigation caused detectives to collect more than 100 pieces of evidence and follow many leads before identifying Maggio as a suspect in the homicide.
Prosecutors plan to present DNA evidence found at the scene linking Maggio to the crime, along with a knife found lying next to Eaton’s body that Jessica Eaton said resembled the one her mother kept in the car for emergencies.
Maggio’s attorney, Michael Clancy, argued the DNA evidence does not prove Maggio’s guilt because Eaton and Maggio had sexual relations just ten days prior.
Instead, Clancy argued, the Lockport police investigation overlooked crucial evidence that would point to someone else as responsible for the double murder.
“What you’re not going to hear from judge Tomczak when she gives you the law, is that if DNA is found on an item or DNA is at a scene, he’s guilty. It’s just not true,” Clancy told the jury.
Clancy pointed out that two different types of DNA were found under Eaton’s fingernails, along with multiple DNA profiles on both the knife and the shirt she was wearing when she was found.
“The question is, what’s the other DNA? Who’s the other DNA? That’s the mystery of this, not why his (Maggio’s) DNA would be there,” he told the jury.
Prosecutors claimed that when a detective called Maggio — who was with his father watching his two other children — to inform him of his daughter’s death, he appeared unusually quiet and did not show signs of distress. They argued that this reaction is unusual for someone learning about the death of their child and a person they had been in a relationship with.
However, Clancy contended that Maggio’s father described him as an inherently quiet person, arguing that interpreting his reaction as a sign of guilt is not reliable evidence.
Instead of breaking down, Clancy said Maggio cooperated with the police, allowing himself to be interviewed for five hours without a lawyer present, and agreed to let authorities search his home, car and phone for evidence.
Zanayad said he never told his father Bryant was dead, but instead sat down and watched TV.
“He had no consciousness of guilt because he did nothing wrong,” Clancy argued.
At the time of Eaton and Bryant’s deaths, Clancy said Maggio was with his fiancée at their home in Crestwood.
Last year, Clancy argued that Maggio should be released from the Will County Detention Facility, where he was being held on a $10 million bond while awaiting trial, but the motion was denied, according to court records.
The trial, which prosecutors said could potentially last three weeks, will resume Oct. 2 at the Will County Courthouse in Joliet.
smoilanen@chicagotribune.com
