An appellate court has upheld the conviction of a Crestwood man who is serving life in prison for the 2020 murder of a Lockport woman and her toddler daughter.

In 2024, a Will County jury found Anthony Maggio, 31, guilty of strangling Ashtin Eaton, 32, and staging her death to look like a suicide. Maggio also was found guilty of smothering their toddler daughter, Hazel Bryant, to death.

Maggio committed the murders on Oct. 2, 2020, in Eaton’s Lockport apartment to avoid paying child support for Hazel, according to Will County prosecutors.

On Thursday, the 3rd Appellate Court in Ottawa issued a ruling that supported Will County Amy Bertani-Tomczak’s decision to reject the alternative suspect theory in Maggio’s case.

Bertani-Tomczak found Maggio’s attorneys failed to provide evidence against Eaton’s ex-husband that rose above the level of speculation or mere suspicion.

The appellate court agreed because Maggio’s DNA was found at the crime scene while Eaton’s ex-husband’s was not. The high court also determined Eaton’s ex-husband had a corroborated alibi on the night of the murders.

The appellate court ruled prosecutors proved their case beyond a reasonable doubt based on the totality of the evidence, even though they did not have direct evidence Maggio was at the crime scene at the time of murders or when his DNA was left at the scene.

“Additionally, although [Maggio’s] cell phone records did not indicate he was in Lockport at the time of the murders, the state presented evidence that [Maggio] knew ways to avoid his cell phone being tracked,” according to the appellate court.