Jury picked for Lockport double murder trial

A 12-member jury has been impaneled in Will County to decide whether a Crestwood man is guilty of choking a Lockport woman to death in 2020 and smothering their 14-month-old daughter.

The selection of 12 jurors and two alternate jurors took about three hours Monday at the Will County Courthouse in Joliet. They were chosen out of a pool of about 40 prospective jurors.

The jurors will spend potentially the next three weeks sitting in on a trial that is set to begin Tuesday morning.

The panel will hear the case against Anthony Maggio, 30, who stands charged with the first-degree murder of Ashtin Eaton, 32, and the first-degree murder of their child, Hazel Bryant, in Lockport.

Maggio faces four counts of first-degree murder.

Will County prosecutors plan to make opening statements in the case Tuesday, a day before the fourth anniversary of the deaths of Eaton and Bryant.

On Oct. 2, 2020, Eaton and Bryant were discovered dead inside of a residence in the 900 block of South Hamilton Street in Lockport.

Two years after their deaths, a Lockport Police Department investigation resulted in charges against Maggio.

While Eaton had a cut on her wrist, prosecutors alleged Maggio had strangled her and staged her death to look like a suicide. Prosecutors plan to present DNA evidence and other evidence linking Maggio to the murders.

Prosecutors contend Maggio was motivated to kill Eaton and Bryant following a dispute between Maggio and Eaton regarding child support payments for Bryant.

The prosecution team against Maggio includes Will County Assistant State’s Attorney Ashley Kwasneski, Christopher Koch and James Zanayed. Koch was part of the prosecution team that won a murder conviction against former Bolingbrook Police Sgt. Drew Peterson at his 2012 trial.

Maggio is being represented by Chicago attorneys Michael Clancy and Margaret McQuaid.

Clancy has claimed his client was with his wife “at the time of the alleged offense” in Crestwood. He has also claimed DNA evidence consists of “mixtures of multiple males,” some of whom are unknown

Will County Judge Amy Bertani-Tomczak, the presiding judge of the felony division of the courthouse, has barred cameras from the trial, which are open court proceedings, at the request of Clancy.

Clancy argued photography would be distracting and that extended media coverage will affect the possibility of a fair jury pool. Among the roughly 40 prospective jurors questioned Monday, only two reported having any familiarity Maggio’s case since it was charged in 2022.

Bertani-Tomczak’s decision stands in contrast to that of her predecessor, retired Will County Judge Dave Carlson, who allowed limited still photography in at least three trials.