Jury convicts Anthony Maggio in Lockport double homicide

Relatives of Ashtin Eaton gathered outside a Will County courtroom Friday, tears of relief streaming down their faces as they embraced one another after a jury convicted the man charged with murder of Eaton and her 14-month-old daughter, Hazel Bryant.

“I’m so glad this is over. They were my babies,” said Eaton’s mother, Shirley Onderisin, in tears.

After nine days of testimony and more than 15 hours of deliberations, the jury found 30-year-old Anthony Maggio, from Crestwood. guilty of first-degree murder in both deaths.

“My daughter’s finally going to have justice, and my granddaughter, finally after four years,” Onderisin said.

Defense attorney Michael Clancy said he did not want to comment.

Jurors heard eight days of witness testimony and viewed numerous photographs of Eaton and Bryant taken at the crime scene. Onderisin said seeing those images was incredibly difficult.

“It took me three years to get them out of my head,” she said.

Maggio and Eaton, who were co-workers at an Amazon plant in Joliet, began a romantic relationship in 2019, despite Maggio being engaged to another woman and having two children with her, testimony showed.

The bodies of Eaton and Bryant were found by Eaton’s oldest daughter, Jessica, who was just 11 years old at the time. She discovered her mother and sister in their apartment on the 900 block of South Hamilton Street in Lockport. Eaton was strangled and Bryant was asphyxiated, prosecutors said.

After waking up late for school that morning, Jessica Eaton walked into her “worst nightmare” and “saw a scene from a horror movie,” Assistant State’s Attorney Ashley Kwasneski told jurors Thursday.

When Ashtin Eaton was strangled, Kwasneski told the jury she fought back, which led to Maggio’s DNA being found under her fingernails. His DNA was also discovered on a box cutter knife prosecutors said was used to cut Eaton’s wrist, as well as on the neckline of her shirt.

The cut was Maggio’s attempt to stage Eaton’s death as a suicide, prosecutors said, while Bryant’s smothering was intended to appear as an accident caused by Eaton.

Prosecutors said Maggio’s motive was he did not want to pay court-ordered child support for Bryant.

Maggio’s fiancée, Marcelina Baliczek, said she and Maggio, who have two children together, 6-year-old Bella and 5-year-old Lily, had disagreements over child support payments after she found out about Maggio’s affair with Eaton.

After prosecutors read text messages exchanged between Baliczek and Maggio in 2019, where they discussed having Maggio meet with Eaton to “keep her quiet” about child support, Baliczek admitted she was worried that if she left Maggio and Eaton filed for support first, she would receive a lesser amount.

In the text messages, she also referenced concerns about having enough money to build the “house that we dreamed of building.”

Prosecutors believe Maggio was determined to regain Baliczek’s trust after the affair and felt pressured by their discussions about child support to sever ties with Eaton, hoping she wouldn’t seek financial assistance from him, prosecutors said.

“I was concerned about being able to provide for my kids,” she testified Wednesday. “So yes, money was a part of that.”

The two attempted to resolve their issues and even attended couples counseling, Baliczek said, and for about eight months, Maggio had no contact with Eaton and was not involved in their child’s life. However, in September 2020, just 12 days before Eaton and Bryant were killed, Maggio went to Eaton’s apartment and slept with her, prosecutors said.

Clancy argued Eaton and Maggio’s encounter is how Maggio’s DNA ended up on three of four items tested from the crime scene. Aside from his DNA, multiple unidentified DNA profiles were also found on the items, which Clancy said should have been tested more thoroughly to pursue other leads pointing to a different killer.

Onderisin testified her daughter was particularly cautious during the COVID-19 pandemic due to Bryant’s young age. She frequently showered and wouldn’t hold Bryant without first washing her hands after coming home from her job at the Amazon plant in Joliet, she said.

Prosecutors contended it would not be possible for such large amounts of Maggio’s DNA to be under Eaton’s fingernails and on her shirt if their last interaction was 12 days prior.

Prosecutors argued if anyone other than Maggio killed the mother and child, they would likely have harmed Jessica Eaton as well. Since 14-month-old Bryant was asphyxiated and the 11-year-old, who could potentially testify, was left unharmed, prosecutors contended that Maggio was the only person who would have needed Bryant out of the way.

“There is one person, and that person is the father who never wanted her,” Kwasneski said. “He never wanted her here, never wanted to be financially responsible for her. And that father soon realized he was going to have pay for a baby he never planned for, never wanted, and decided to do something about it.”

The jury initially did not agree on a verdict, and informed Judge Amy Bertani-Tomczak Thursday evening they still were not unanimous on all charges.

Post-trial motions and possible sentencing are scheduled for Dec. 19 at the Will County Courthouse in Joliet.

Lockport police Chief Richard Harang issued a statement Friday, expressing gratitude for all the detectives who worked to solve the years-long case.

“I commend the jury for finding Maggio guilty of the murder of both Ashtin and baby Hazel,” the statement reads. “These are very difficult cases in that they are extremely tragic for everyone involved.”

Outside the courthouse, Eaton’s family members formed a circle, extending their arms to display the bracelets they created for the trial, with the words “Justice for Ashtin and Hazel.”

While the trial may have finished, Onderisin said “It’s never going to be over for me.”

“He’s going to suffer for awhile and I’m going to suffer until I die, because my baby’s never going to be here again,” she said.

smoilanen@chicagotribune.com