Ill. man convicted of fatally strangling ex-girlfriend, smothering their toddler

LOCKPORT, Ill. (TCN) -- A jury has found a 30-year-old man guilty of killing his ex-girlfriend and their 14-month-old daughter in 2020.

WFLD-TV reports Anthony Maggio was convicted on Friday, Oct. 11, of two counts of first-degree murder for the deaths of Ashtin Eaton and Hazel Bryant. The jury deliberated for 14 hours before reaching the verdict. He will be sentenced in December.

According to the Joliet Patch, on Oct. 2, 2020, Lockport Police were called to an apartment on the 900 block of Hamilton Street and found 32-year-old Eaton and her toddler deceased. Officials determined Eaton was strangled to death, while Bryant had been smothered. Prosecutors reportedly argued Maggio killed the two victims because he did not want to pay child support. Maggio’s attorneys claimed he was at home asleep with his fiancée when Eaton and Bryant were killed.

However, Maggio’s DNA was reportedly under Eaton and Bryant’s fingernails, as well as on a knife and Eaton’s shirt.

Eaton’s mother Shirley Onderisin told WFLD, "He’s going to suffer for a while and I’m going to suffer till I die because my baby will never be here with me again. But his dad can go visit him."

Onderisin added, "My daughter is finally going to have justice, along with my granddaughter."

Onderisin said Eaton was not her first daughter to die. She told the news station, "It’s never going to be over for me. I lost my first daughter in a car accident, and now I don’t have my second daughter and my granddaughter. So it’s never over. But justice was served."