Lockport mother and baby Hazel killed over child support: prosecutors

JOLIET – Oak Lawn native Anthony Maggio was in his mid-to-late 20s pursuing his dream of becoming a firefighter and paramedic in the Chicago area. But those dreams ended after Lockport police arrested the Joliet Amazon warehouse worker in October. February 2, 2020, double murder in Lockport of Maggio’s ex-girlfriend Ashtin Eaton and her 1-year-old daughter Hazel Bryant.

During Judge Amy Bertani-Tomczak’s opening statements Tuesday morning in Will County Courtroom 405, prosecutor James Zanayad told jurors that Maggio murdered Ashtin and baby Hazel because he didn’t want to be burdened with child support payments.

Ashtin died by strangulation and her body was found in her kitchen with a black knife nearby; Baby Hazel was later discovered on Ashtin’s bed.

“Baby Hazel was face down, butt up, also deceased,” prosecutor Zanayad said during opening arguments in Maggio’s first-degree double murder trial.

The one-year-old baby died from suffocation, the prosecutor found.

He pointed out that the death scene gave the impression that baby Hazel may have died in an accident and that her mother used the knife to slit her wrists and take her own life. However, this was not the case at all. The autopsy revealed it was a brutal double murder, Zanayad said.

Lockport police conducted several interviews and learned that Anthony Maggio was a colleague at Amazon and also Hazel’s father. In addition to his romantic relationship with Ashtin Eaton, Maggio also had a fiancée and two other young children, the jury heard.

When Lockport police called Maggio and asked him about baby Hazel, he told them she was technically his daughter. Police never told Maggio how she died, and Maggio never once asked police about Ashtin, Zanayad told the jury.

After the phone call ended, Maggio never told his father that baby Hazel was dead. Instead, he sat back down and watched TV, the prosecutor said.

Zanayad told the jury that Maggio left his DNA “in three key locations at the crime scene.” Police also recovered hundreds of text messages from Maggio to Ashtin “days before Ashtin and this defendant got into an argument.”

Maggio did not want to be required by the court system to make routine child support payments, the prosecutor told jurors. Maggio was already heavily in debt and therefore wanted any child support payments for Baby Hazel wiped off the books; In this way, the prosecutor emphasized that his prospects of getting a job as a paramedic would not be negatively affected.

After Maggio killed Ashtin and Hazel, it meant the end of his child support payments, the prosecutor noted.

As for Maggio, his family has hired Michael Clancy, a Chicago criminal defense attorney. Clancy argued during opening statements that his client did not murder Ashtin and baby Hazel.

“He’s innocent,” Clancy explained. “He is not guilty. He didn’t kill his child. He didn’t kill his colleague, the mother of his child.”

Clancy said his client was an aspiring paramedic. At the time of the Lockport double murders, Maggio was 26 years old. He grew up in Oak Lawn, where he graduated from high school. Maggio was well on his way to becoming a professional firefighter and paramedic and hoped to be hired at Cicero “to help people, save people,” Clancy noted. “This is Anthony Maggio.”

Clancy insisted that the Lockport police investigation ignored crucial evidence that showed someone else was responsible for the double murder.

Clancy told the jury that Maggio worked as an on-duty medic at the Amazon facility where “he and Ashtin became very good friends at work. And mistakes were made, mistakes that don’t make him a murderer.”

“They began a sexual relationship and had a child together,” Clancy continued. “And yes, Anthony made mistakes that many people in this world make. He had an affair with a work colleague by whom he had a child.”

Clancy reminded the jury that Will County prosecutors would have to prove his client’s guilt “beyond a reasonable doubt.” As for DNA, DNA has no time stamp, Clancy suggested. “He was in this apartment ten days ago. They had sex together,” Clancy said, Maggio confirmed.

Clancy said two different DNA samples were found under Ashtin’s fingernails at the crime scene, and “that’s the mystery of it.”

The shirt Ashtin was wearing at the time of her death contained four different male DNA samples “on that shirt. No surprise, his DNA was on that shirt,” Clancy said of his customer. “What are the other three DNAs?”

According to Clancy, the box cutter found near Ashtin’s body contained three different DNA samples.

After being approached by Lockport police, Maggio consented to police interviews, turned over his phone, gave them access to his vehicle and his DNA and always made himself available to assist police in their investigation, Clancy said .

“Because he was unaware of his guilt, because he had nothing to hide,” Clancy argued. “And in 2024, he remains innocent there today.”

Bertani-Tomczak has twice rejected a request from Maggio’s defense to allow them to introduce a replacement suspect during the trial.

She also rejected his request to be released under electronic monitoring. He remains in custody at the Will County Jail.

The first day of Maggio’s trial was scheduled to continue Tuesday afternoon at the Will County Courthouse.

The process is expected to take at least two weeks.